WikiLeaks plans to turn scope on business world

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Of all the revelations unveiled by the latest WikiLeaks data dump, the most important may not be that Moammar Gaddafi pals around all the time with a "voluptuous blonde" Ukrainian nurse. The most important may be that these days no data, anywhere, is safe from prying eyes.

Any network linked to the Internet is open to multiple varieties of hacking, writes PCMagazine's Lance Ulanoff. The latest WikiLeaks leak came via a government network. The government's most secure computers--where presumably it keeps its most secure information--require complicated passwords; they have blocked ports or restricted downloads, and they come with an audit trail system. Nonetheless, extremely sensitive data got out and is now being consumed by millions across the globe.

If that's not scary enough for the protectors of corporate data, it turns out that WikiLeak's founder Julian Assange is turning his scope on big businesses next. Early in the new year, he plans to post tens of thousands of internal documents from an American bank, according to a lengthy article by Andy Greenberg at Forbes.

The details of the upcoming corporate data dump are unknown, of course, but Assange said in an interview with Greenberg that the leak will reveal poor company behavior. "You could call it the ecosystem of corruption," Assange said. "But it's also all the regular decision making that turns a blind eye to and supports unethical practices: The oversight that's not done, the priorities of executives, how they think they're fulfilling their own self-interest."

Pharmaceutical companies, financial companies, energy companies all may find themselves exposed via WikiLeaks in the months or years ahead, as Assange said he has damaging data on all of these industries.

For more:
- see Andy Greenberg's article at Forbes
- see Lance Ulanoff's post at PCMagazine

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