Advisor Warns Of WikiLeak Attacks On Government Websites

Sir Peter Ricketts, the national security advisor to the UK government, warned that tax return and benefits claims sites may come under attack from WikiLeaks supporters.

A spokesperson said that he has notified government permanent secretaries to ensure their security is strong enough to resist any DDoS attacks waged by the Anonymous Organisation’s botnet. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) are seen as prime targets.

US Struggles To Charge Assange

The attacks may result if Julian Assange is extradited to face charges in Sweden but it looks like the US authorities are also looking for grounds to press charges of their own.

The latest rumour from the US is that the Espionage Act of 1917 may be called upon to provide grounds. The last time this was used was in 1971 when the New York Times and the Washington Post faced down president Richard Nixon. The newspapers were accused of breaching the Act by publishing a sensitive Pentagon report on the Vietnam war. Later, the Post played a major part in bringing down Nixon with its Watergate exposé.

The Act was established to give the government a way round the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech, when the country’s national interest is threatened – usually in times of war. Whether the UK government or the Swedish authorities would consider this as grounds for extradition is yet to be tested.

Assange is currently in custody following the Swedish government’s appeal to overturn his release on bail. The UK court has granted bail under a £240,000 surety but this is now pending the appeal judgement.

Court Allows Tweeting

During the hearing, Howard Riddle, the chief magistrate, made legal history by allowing reporters to use Twitter to send live updates on the proceedings. He said that this would be allowed “if it’s quiet and doesn’t disturb anything”.

Whether Assange is guilty of anything is the real issue. As the Times and Post case showed in the US, the freedom of the press often sees private documents being made public. In the UK it was the publishing of MPs’ secret expense accounts that triggered a public outcry and major overhaul in the government’s procedures.

Meanwhile, Bradley Manning the soldier accused of the actual security breach is still being held pending trial. Bruce Schneier, chief security technical officer at BT and a security blogger, expressed his surprise that such sensitive documents had been encrypted but not audited.

“I’m not surprised that these cables were available to so many people. We know that access control is hard, and that it’s impossible to know beforehand what information someone will need to do their job. What is surprising is that there wasn’t any audit logs kept about who accessed all these cables. That seems like a no-brainer,” he said.