Headline, October16, 2013

''' WIKILEAKS-​HEROES : 

THE WORLD'S BIGGEST KEEPER OF

 SECRETS ''' :

The very next year WikiLeaks published documents from a Pharma trade Group implying that its lobbyists were receiving confidential documents from and exerting influence over World Health Organization project to fund drug research in the developing world:

The resulting attention helped crater the WHO project.

In September 2009 commodities giant Trafigura filed an injunction that prevented British Media from mentioning a damaging internal report. The memo showed the company had dumped tons of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, chemicals that allegedly sickened 100,000 locals. 

But it couldn't stop WikiLeaks from publishing the information. ''Trafigura eventually paid more than $200 million in settlements''.

How can an American corporation respond to WikiLeaks attack? Lawsuits won't work: WikiLeaks is legally shielded in the U.S., by its role as a mere conduit for documents. 

Even if a company somehow won a judgement against WikiLeaks, that wouldn't shut it down. Julian Assange spreads the site's assets over many countries.

''There's no single target to drop the bomb on,'' says Eric Goldman, a Law professor at the Santa Clara University.

 The best protection? With a dash of Irony Icelandic WikiLeaks staffer Kristinn Hrafnsson suggests that companies change their ways to avoid targeting.

''They should resist the temptation to enter into corruption, he says. Don Tapscott, coauthor of  ''The Naked Corporation'', agrees. His simplistic conclusion : ''Open your own Kimono. You are going to be naked. So you have to dig deep, look at your whole operartion, make sure that integrity is part of your bones.''

Most corporations, instead, are turning to cybersecurity to shield their private parts. Despite dozen of calls to companies in tech, energy and finance, none wanted to talk about antileaking strategies. 

But a Forrester Research study found that about a quarter of companies in the U.S,. the U.K., France, Germany and Canada were implementing Leak-focused security software and another third are considering that option.

A study last year by the Ponemon Institute, a privacy-research consultancy in Michigan, found that 60% of employees admit to taking sensitive data before they leave a company. 

But even shutting down WikiLeaks wouldn't stop the growing movement of transparency agitators. 

They now have a nation-size ally: Iceland. Since WikiLeaks scored a major scoop unearthing the corrupt loans that helped destroy that country's largest bank, the volcanic island is fast on its way to becoming the conduit for global flood of leaks.

It began when Kaupthing Bank collapsed in 2008   - a calamitous chain reaction that strapped Iceland with $128 billion in debts, around $400,000 per capita. Ten months later Bogi Agustsson, an anchor for Icelandic national broadcaster for RUV, appeared on the evening news and explained that a legal injunction had prevented the station from airing a prepared expose on Kaupthing. 

Viewers who wanted to see the material, he suggested, should visit a site called WikiLeaks.org.

Those who took Agustsson's advice found a summary of Kaupthing's loan posted on the site, detailing more than $6 billion funneled from Kaupthing's coffers to its own proprietors and companies they owned, often with little or no collateral:

 $900 million went to olafur Olafsson, a major investor in Kaupthing who, on his birthday, flew in Elton John from England, along with a grand piano, for a one-hour concert. 

''The bank had been eaten from inside out,'' says Kristinn Hrafnsson, a former investigative reporter in Reykjavik who then joined WikiLeaks. 

So, WikeLeaks became a household name in Iceland. In December 2009 Assange and Danial Domscheit-Berg, a German who then worked with WikiLeaks, were invited to Keynote a free-speech conference in Reykjavik. 

Their talk echoed an idea from American libertarian John Perry Barlow, calling for a  ''Switzerland of bits,'' Iceland, with its independent spirit and recent taste of explosive whistle-blowing, they suggested, could become a doppelganger of a tax haven:

 A safe harbor for transparency, where it's open season on government and business secrets  -and leakers are protected by law.

!!! The honour of the Post continues ^^^:

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Iceland. See Ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

'''!!! The Master Brand !!! '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless