Operation Leakspin

Operation: Leakspin was conceived by Anonymous, with the purpose of sorting through recent WikiLeaks releases to identify and raise awareness of potentially important and previously overlooked cables.[1]

Operation Leakspin logo

Background

When the Dutch police arrested a 16-year-old[2] in December 2010 for personally creating a substantial botnet and independently conducting a DDoS attack on websites such as Mastercard.com and Visa.com,[3] a subset of those present and involved at the time decided to move towards more long-term-viable goals such as promoting dialogue and spreading the reach of the WikiLeaks cables.[4]

The name is a pun on the "Leekspin" joke animation.[5]

Structure

As with all actions by Anonymous, it has arisen in an ad hoc fashion and holds neither a centralized leadership nor an enforceable command structure.[6]

Due to the decentralized nature of the project, several independent websites are participating in the effort. It is not clear how much co-ordination, if any, exists between these sites. A list follows:

  • Cable Wiki:[7] Meant to serve as a wiki for the translation of cables to multiple languages, together with additional analysis of the cables
  • Sinde Gate:[8] local group providing translations and explanations of cables related to the scandal "Wikileaks cables reveal that the US wrote Spain's proposed copyright law".[9] "Sinde Gate" is named after the name of the responsible Spanish minister.
  • Operation Leakspin Quality Control:[10] a forum for quality control on the translation/analysis of the cables.
  • Operation Leakspin Blog:[11] a blog informing about the operation Leakspin.
  • Operation AnonPress:[12] An operation dedicated to pushing the US Embassy Cables further into the public domain.

Goals
Official Operation Leakspin propaganda

Leakspin represents a sharp departure from the tactics of Operation Payback. Rather than attacking perceived enemies of the pro-WikiLeaks movement, the sole focus is on propagating material determined to be of public interest.[13] This potentially could lead to media outlets and the general public focusing on the issues uncovered by the released diplomatic cables rather than the morality or sensibility of DDoS attacks as a form of protest or Julian Assange's current legal travails.

It is not clear if Operation Leakspin participants and organizers are working towards a massive global protest movement, such as Anonymous's Project Chanology. Several WikiLeaks-themed demonstrations have occurred globally, but appear to be isolated movements.[14]

It is difficult to ascertain how much support Operation Leakspin has garnered in the Anonymous community.

Although WikiLeaks and Julian Assange are potentially being targeted for criminal investigations in the United States in connection with releasing classified documents,[15] there is no real possibility that Leakspin participants could be at legal risk in the USA due to the protections inherent in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Although arrests have taken place in connection with other pro-WikiLeaks actions,[16] there have so far been no reports of any Leakspin websites or activists being investigated.

See also

References
  1. Sean Bonner (9 December 2010). "Anonymous Stops Drop". Boingboing.net. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  2. Binlot, Ann (9 December 2010). "Dutch Arrest 16-Year-Old for Involvement With Pro-WikiLeaks Hacking Attack". CBS News.
  3. "anonymous-group-revenge-continues-with-ddos-attack-on-visa-after-mastercard". Techshrimp.com. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  4. "Anonymous Hacktivists Ditch DDoS Method Seeking to Spam Wikileaks Cables in Operation Leakspin". Erictric.com. Archived from the original on 20 February 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  5. "Leekspin". Saichotictech.net. Archived from the original on 18 November 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  6. http://forums.whyweprotest.net/splashpage.html Forums.whyweprotest.net Archived 18 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Cable Wiki mainpage". 6 December 2010. Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  8. "Sinde Gate mainpage". Archived from the original on 19 December 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  9. "Wikileaks cables reveal that the US wrote Spain's proposed copyright law". Boing Boing. 3 December 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  10. "Operation Leakspin Quality Control". Archived from the original on 14 December 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  11. "Operation Leakspin Blog". Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  12. "Operation AnonPress Twitter". Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  13. "Operation Leekspin". December 2010. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  14. Heraldsun.com.au
  15. "The New York Times Sleeps With the WikiLeaks Dogs and Now It's Got Fleas". Fox News. 17 December 2010.
  16. http://www.eip-news.com/2010/12/hackers-shut-down-dutch-public-prosecution-website-after-arrest/EIP-news.com Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
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