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Assange’s internet allegedly cut by ‘state party;’ Guccifer 2.0 springs back to life

News
Oct 17, 20163 mins
Data and Information SecurityInternetSecurity

After Assange's internet was 'intentionally severed by a state party,' the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account became active again. The FBI released 100 new pages from its Hillary Clinton investigation.

WikiLeaks has continued to dump Clinton-related emails, such as three Goldman Sachs speeches that Clinton was paid about $225,000 to give, but a series of unusual tweets sent parts of the internet into a tizzy, claiming Assange had been killed and the tweets were triggered by a dead man’s switch.

Yesterday, WikiLeaks’ regular tweets were interrupted by three tweets that contained hashes.

Seven hours later, WikiLeaks tweeted:

As you can see, WikiLeaks claimed that unnamed state actors intentionally ganked his internet connection.

Neither WikiLeaks nor the Ecuadorian Embassy have released any more information other than WikiLeaks saying it had “activated the appropriate contingency plans.” It is assumed that if each code mentioned in the pre-commitment tweets does not precisely match each release, then someone tampered with the releases.

Many have rushed to blame the U.S. for cutting Assange’s internet, while others are pointing a finger at the British. In fact, there seems to be endless speculation about what happened.

When presenting theories about what is happening with Assange, Time went so far as to mention that when former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson visited Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy on Saturday, she allegedly killed him via the vegan lunch she brought for him. Anderson had said he didn’t really enjoy the food: “He said I tortured him with bringing him vegan food.”

Guccifer 2.0 springs back to life as Assange is silenced

The plot thickens…

Some people claim WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 are actually fronts for the Russian government; those people are probably wetting their pants now.

On Oct. 4, Guccifer 2.0 went silent on Twitter and the Guccifer 2.0 blog. The same week, on Oct. 7, the U.S. officially accused the Russian government of stealing and dumping emails to influence the elections. About 10 hours after WikiLeaks claimed some unnamed state actor sabotaged Assange’s internet connectivity, Guccifer 2.0 sprang back to life on Twitter, ready and willing to release new leaks.

So far, Guccifer 2.0 has only retweeted the WikiLeaks release of Podesta emails part 9.

FBI released 100 pages about its investigation in Clinton

Also today, the FBI released 100 new pages about its investigation into allegations that Clinton improperly stored or transmitted classified information on her personal email server. While many portions have been redacted, the release includes notes and summaries of FBI-conducted interviews.

One of the revelations already picking up media attention is an interview that mentioned “The Shadow government” that met weekly to discuss Freedom of Information Act requests regarding Clinton.

Another is that Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy reportedly pressured the FBI to declassify some emails from Clinton’s server.

Someone teach Podesta how to make secure passwords and turn on 2FA

It is unknown if the dumped emails will actually change anyone’s mind and influence the election, but 4chan users reportedly hacked Podesta’s Twitter account hours after WikiLeaks released more of his emails on Wednesday. As has been pointed out, Podesta should consider 2FA and complex passwords.

The compromised Twitter account sent out a tweet saying Podesta had switched teams and was supporting Trump. His iPad and iPhone were also allegedly wiped after the hackers broke into his Outlook account; new stolen emails were allegedly sent on to WikiLeaks.

ms smith

Ms. Smith (not her real name) is a freelance writer and programmer with a special and somewhat personal interest in IT privacy and security issues. She focuses on the unique challenges of maintaining privacy and security, both for individuals and enterprises. She has worked as a journalist and has also penned many technical papers and guides covering various technologies. Smith is herself a self-described privacy and security freak.