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<h1><a href="http://euobserver.com/22/31530">http://euobserver.com/22/31530</a></h1><h1>Kroes: WikiLeaks will increase government transparency</h1>
<p class="author"><a href="mailto:VP@euobs.com">VALENTINA POP</a></p>
<p class="date">16.12.2010 @ 20:58 CET</p>
<p>EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The WikiLeaks disclosure
of US diplomatic cables highlights the need to secure networks and
individuals from hackers, EU digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes
has said. </p>
<p>At the same time, the phenomenon stresses the need for governments to
be "as transparent and open as possible," which entails the "practical
advantage" of reducing the amount of information that needs to be
secured, she declared.</p>
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<img src="http://euobserver.com/onm/media/file3/92380a2b7ae2.png" alt="" height="153" width="230">
<p class="caption">The Dutch commissioner says transparency would reduce costs of securing data (Photo: European Parliament)</p>
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<p>Speaking out almost three weeks after the
whistleblower started publishing the leaked US cables, Ms Kroes on
Thursday (16 December) during a joint US-EU cybersecurity event in
Washington drew the first lessons for the EU from the Wikileaks
phenomenon.</p>
<p>The 69-year old Dutch politician distinguished between three security
incidents regarding WikiLeaks: first, the leak itself, believed to be
acquired by a 22-year old US army soldier who copied all the documents
onto a CD which he allegedly brought into his office to listen to pop
singer Lady Gaga.</p>
<p>"From a cyber-security angle, this highlights the need for all
organisations and individuals to protect themselves against threats to
steal confidential information," Ms Kroes said.</p>
<p>But she also stressed the need for governments to be "as transparent and open as possible."</p>
<p>"I think that is an important value, but it also has a major
practical advantage: it reduces the amount of information that requires
special protection," the Dutch Liberal said.</p>
<p>On WikiLeaks being subsequently ousted from the US-basned servers and
its domain name being taken down by the US company DNS, Ms Kroes asked
the question if these providers "violated the terms of service" and if
their location (on US soil) contributed to the decision.</p>
<p>"When problems arise with globally distributed services all private
operators and public authorities should be able to act with some legal
certainty," Ms Kroes cautiously told the US audience.</p>
<p>The third incident were the "hacktivist attacks" on WikiLeaks and
then on sites like Amazon, Paypal and Visa in retaliation for these
companies having denied service to the whistleblower. The term
'hacktivist' refers to online volunteers who allowed their computers to
be used as bots - zombie computers used in mass-scale attacks which jam
traffic to the website.</p>
<p>"A hacker called Jester mounted a denial of service (DoS) attack
against the Wikileaks website. Later, in support of WikiLeaks, the group
Anonymous distributed a software (LOIC) to mount voluntary distributed
denial of service (DDoS) attacks against Visa, Paypal and governmental
sites," Ms Kroes recalled.</p>
<p>As the number of computers used in the attacks was apparently only a
few hundreds, the commissioner noted that "such attacks can be organised
by just a few" and also that most of these owners voluntarily gave
access to their computers.</p>
<p>"However, the "victim" services have also proved quite robust and
agile, which demonstrates the resilience of the cloud architectures we
have in place," she said.</p>
<p>As a consequence, the EU was now looking at criminalising the setting
up of botnets and attacking information systems, she said. Also, the
commission was aiming at rendering more effective justice and police
cooperation in the cyber-area.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has finally
left police custody, after his bail was approved following the rejection
of a Swedish appeal. While Swedish prosecutors are pursuing an alleged
sexual abuse case, US authorities are also mounting a spying case
against him, his lawyers said.</p>
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