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Should we launch a cyber attack against WikiLeaks?

Should we launch a cyber attack against WikiLeaks?

Imagine this scenario: an American government official commits treason and hands over hundreds of thousands of documents categorized above “classified” to the Iranian government. What would the appropriate response be?

A mere condemnation of the act would certainly be criticized as a weak response, and rightly. Such a severe national security breach would justify a stronger response.

Why, then, is the Obama administration not responding more strongly to the illegal WikiLeaks documents leaks?

WikiLeaks, a wiki for secret information, has recently dumped three massive document caches online. This week, the site has released hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. This latest release is fresh on the heels of nearly half a million documents related to the Iraq and Afghan wars.

The government classifies information for a reason. Do we want Iran knowing our negotiation strategy regarding their nuclear program? Would it be reasonable for China to know the operational structure of the US Pacific Command? Does it make sense for the Taliban to know the details of our counter-insurgency strategy?

For US foreign policy to function, in other words, some information cannot be made public. We cannot have groups like WikiLeaks publishing information whenever they feel like it. WikiLeaks is not looking out for the best interests of the United States.

The Obama administration cannot let WikiLeaks get away with these damaging disclosures. Thus far, however, the response has been weak.

You could practically see the president’s blood boil as he noted that he was“concerned” by the releases; his top national security adviser, James Jones, went even further, stating that he finds the leaks “irresponsible.” If a firm stand is not taken now, it will set a precedent for future leakers and our foreign relations could be harmed further.

WikiLeaks is not a foreign country. We cannot call in cruise missiles against Julian Assange, the shadowy founder of the group. What we can do is launch a cyber-attack to take down WikiLeaks.

I’m no lawyer and cannot judge the legality of this action. The CIA, however, would seem well-positioned to carry out this action. The CIA carries out clandestine actions and seems to have no problem “covertly” dropping a couple tons of TNT into Northwest Pakistan every other day.

We have the capability to do it effectively. The Stuxnet worm, widely believed to have been created by Israel, has recently inflicted substantial damage on Iranian nuclear facilities. If Israel, whose defense budget is 1/45 of ours, can hit Iran’s crown jewels, the United States can take down a single privately-funded website.

I could be sympathetic to the concern that this could set a precedent that could lead to a militarization of the Internet. The United States, as far as the public knows, has never used our cyber capabilities offensively. Nevertheless, as long as the tactic is used sparingly, I believe it could be an effective tool in the American arsenal.

Additionally, China is known to have launched multiple cyber attacks against our government infrastructure. Despite this, the web has not turned into a battleground. Nothing suggests that one attack by Washington would lead to a cyber World War III.

And after all, if WikiLeaks were a country, we’d be starting up our aircraft carriers. In comparison, what’s the worst that can come of a cyber attack on http://www.wikileaks.org/?

View Comments (7)
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Comments (7)

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  • K

    KhalilDec 14, 2010 at 7:49 AM

    We can not hack the hacker, its not going to work with that many followers. There are already so many mirror sites. There is no control over the press, due to the first amendment. So when he made the site there was nothing contraversal, he had no viewers, no publicity. Then came the helicopter video, that got people's attention.

    Also he isn't just getting America, thats propoganda to make us go against him. There will be a cyber war, and there will be blood. This man could destroy a whole country with that site, his followers can do worse. We can't do anyhting about him because of this fact. America will try, and so will every other country he is targeting, but ultimately we are in a checkmate.

    We need to not raise public awareness of him, let people exept leaders forget. Thats the best thing to do.

    Tell me can you take out youtube? facebook? yahoo? google? even bing? Thats how we would get rid of him, they all have something to do with julian assange. Everything is screwed up in this generation.

    "We are on a road trip, in a car, without brakes. There is a wall in front of us, what is there to do?"

    Reply
  • B

    BasilNov 30, 2010 at 2:17 PM

    1. The CIA, as a I wrote, carries out covert actions. An attack by the Cyber Command – who work out of the Pentagon – is a declaration of war. On the other hand, an attack by the CIA is a covert operation.

    2. WkiLeaks was hit by a second DDOS today, even after migrating to Amazon. http://www.fastcompany.com/1706357/wikileaks-hit-… The attack "made WikiLeaks inaccessible." Tech isn't my specialty, but I'm sure the government could find a way to take them down if a lone wolf hacker can do it.

    3. This is where I think we get to the real heart of our disagreement. Why should WikiLeaks be the final arbiter of what information gets released to the public and what does not? WikiLeaks is NOT a competent judge of what is best for the American people. Julian Assange, from what I've read, is an attention-seeking, anti-American anarchist. How could he possibly have the best interests of the American people at heart?

    Take your argument to the extreme. Should the government restrict access to nothing? The vast majority of Americans would say no, not all information should be public. We then have to have someone deciding what gets released and what doesn't. Why should Assange be the one deciding? No American citizen voted Assange to public office. No American citizen voted to have Assange choosing what information is public and what is classified.

    So who should be the arbiter? Who should decide what is classified and what's not? We already have a decider – it's called the government.

    The short and sweet version of what I'm saying is this: Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are not in a position to know whether or not releasing these documents is what's best for America.

    Reply
    • P

      poorly thought outNov 30, 2010 at 7:29 PM

      I agree that not all information should be public. However, I would argue that many of the things revealed by the cable release show blatant misuse of that "classified" label (which by the way only roughly 11,000 documents were market as "secret", not even "top secret.")

      As for a note on the 10gbps attack today, that hardly matters. The files were released to P2P networks via a torrent, and the documents were cached in Google's copy of the web, and many excerpts and cables were still on news websites. Long story short: it doesn't matter they were down for a short time today. http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/26

      I agree Assange is not a good arbiter. I disagree with the release of the military documents. However, these diplomatic cables

      Many parts of your argument make sense, but I'd like to point a few things out.

      – 300,000-800,000 people had access to these cables at the Pentagon and State Department. Sheer numbers means that at some point these things are bound to leak.

      – If you argue (as does our federal government) that this information is so damaging to our foreign agenda, operatives, and troops abroad: why didn't they keep a tighter lid on it? I agree some of it does undermine our foreign relations. Still if the U.S. was serious about cyber defense of its confidential information, they'd have much stronger security measures in place to prevent things like this.

      – I agree some things probalby shouldn't have been released, but many things should have. 1) Hillary Clinton electronically wiretapping U.N. leadership. That's deplorable. We would be furious if one of our "allies" was wiretapping leaders in our government. 2) The CIA operation that kidnapped a German citizen. Talk about blunder. Taxpayers should know that our clandestine agencies are making huge blunders with their tax dolars. 3) The China/Google issue. The U.S. should have released that information at that time, despite the damage to the U.S./Chinese relationship. Especially considering how many businesses rely on the internet for e-mail and overall operation, the fact that China has been doing this is important information for the public to have. The U.S. vociferously defended Google when the incident happened, and now we know why. The world should know what China's up to. China recently re-routed internet traffic through their servers to see if they could. They're gauging their ability to control the internet. That's something no one wants. The U.S. has a responsibility to condemn these actions just as we condemn terrorist attacks. http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/11/how-

      Reply
      • B

        BasilNov 30, 2010 at 8:50 PM

        Looks like you forgot to finish a paragraph there?

        1. "sheer numbers" does not mean this had to leak. That's like saying that because terrorists are so clever, they are bound to succeed and we shouldn't bother with airport security.

        2. Again, you are making a false assumption. This was important information – just because it could have been under heavier security doesn't make it less important.

        3. Again, I think this is really the important core of our disagreement. Assange should not be the decider. You and WikiLeaks might argue that those 3 items should have been released – but why do you get to decide?? Why are you a more competent judge than a government technocrat?

        Reply
        • A

          AnyonomousDec 14, 2010 at 8:00 AM

          Julian is gets the right to decide because we gave it to him. He gets to decide because people let him. There is no "great decider of information." there just isn't. You left out some details, he isn't just messing with America, america can do that alone. He is messing with a lot of countries. There is a problem with how we deal with this, we brought it up. Ignore julian and likely he will go away, he is not killing anyone, he is releasing government files, files that should have been typed, printed, and locked away, not on a computer.

          This is our fault, as in the media, and the people. For some reason americans, and other people, abuse the rights of america.

          "Knowledge is power that is fueled by those who care."

          Reply
  • A

    a studentNov 30, 2010 at 2:15 PM

    KUDOS and Wow Basil, I completely agree with you(FINALLY:)) and think "poorly thought out " is wrong. I am actually confused as to why the government did not use a cyber attack similar to the one Israel used..Diplomacy does require confidentiality, especially regarding North Korea and Iran, terribly dangerous hot spots…this Julian Assange guy is dangerous, and is looking to unravel the fabric that he despises in our society…we need to address it immediately, this is a case where govt intervention is clearly warranted…we better get our ducks in order with the cyber attacks , as you are right..China has already tapped into our infrastructure, and several weeks ago, some military installations were tapped into.It is a dangerous reality…the world is watching how we react,with wikileaks as with North Korea, to see what we can and will torlerate.

    Reply
  • P

    poorly thought outNov 29, 2010 at 11:47 PM

    I vehemently disagree Basil. Usually you do much more admirable research.

    First, the CIA no longer carries out U.S. cyber defenses or offensives (though it did a number of years ago). That is a task for the U.S. Cyber Command which is an armed forces sub-division under the NSA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Cyber_

    Second, WikiLeaks went under a distributed DOS attack when trying to release the documents on Sunday. Since then, WikiLeaks has moved their front page to Amazon Web Services for scalability. The United States would be attacking Amazon (an American corporation), and could bring down huge portions of the web that are stored on Amazon's AWS (EC2) service. To further complicate things, not all of Amazon's servers are located in the United States. They're distributed globally for scale. The United States would be launching an offensive on one of the most powerful, redundant public network of servers on the internet apart from Facebook. Also, the cables in question are being hosted by a French organization. EU and French internet law are quite complicated. Short of Amazon kicking WikiLeaks off, don't expect it to be brought down by the might of the U.S. Cyber Command. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/nov/29/

    Then onto the issue of whether the documents should be released at all. I think it's high time some of this information got out. I don't necessarily agree about releasing the War documents for Iraq and Afghanistan, but these cables (which were not ALL classified by the way, only a handful were classified. They were just restricted to State Department employees) were important to release. They detail huge mistakes the United States has made that have been hushed up. The CIA has kidnapped the wrong people, Hillary Clinton is snooping on the United Nations Leadership. China has been mounting cyber attacks of its own. The world has a right to know these things, especially the parts about the kidnapped German man and the Chinese. The public needs to know that China is gauging its ability to take over the internet and steal information from Google, Adobe, and our government.

    Asange is highly questionable, WikiLeaks is questionable, but I admire the work they're doing. I also trust the judgment of the New York Times, Le Monde, and The Guardian, who are at least consulting and redacting information that could be especially damaging.

    Reply
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Should we launch a cyber attack against WikiLeaks?