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Cops Seize Server That Hosted BlueLeaks, DDoSecrets Says
Cops Seize Server that Hosted BlueLeaks, DDoSecrets Says:
Authorities in Germany have seized a server used by the organization that published a trove of US police internal documents commonly known as BlueLeaks, according to the organization's founder.
On Tuesday, Emma Best, the founder of Distributed Denial of Secrets or DDoSecrets, a WikiLeaks-like website that has published the police data, said that prosecutors in the German town of Zwickau seized the organization's "primary public download server."
"We are working to obtain additional information, but presume it is [regarding] #BlueLeaks," Best added on Twitter. "The server was used ONLY to distribute data to the public. It had no contact with sources and was involved in nothing more than enlightening the public through journalistic publishing."
Best shared a screenshot of the email they received from DDoSecrets' hosting provider informing of the server seizure.
"Your server has been confiscated," the email reads. "Until now we were not allowed to inform you accordingly." The email then notes that the seizing authority was the Department of Public Prosecution Zwickau.
German Authorities Seized the Servers that Hosted BlueLeaks Police Files at the Request of the US Government
The site that hosted hundreds of thousands of leaked police files — dubbed BlueLeaks — has been taken offline after its servers were confiscated by German authorities acting at the request of the US government.
[...] It's not clear what legal grounds the US has to take the server offline. Hacking the government is a crime, but the Supreme Court has upheld the right of journalists to publish leaked documents as long as they weren't involved in their theft. DDoSecrets maintains that it's a publisher without any ties to the hacker who first obtained the BlueLeaks files.
A spokesperson for the Zwickau prosecutor's office told the German outlet Zeit Online [in German] that they were aware DDoSecrets is a journalistic project, but declined to provide any further information.
Previously: "BlueLeaks" Exposes 269 GB of Data from Hundreds of Police Departments and "Fusion Centers"
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @05:05PM (8 children)
someone tell the us govermint that if they wanted the data they could just go to the website and click "download";
there's no need to confiscate the WHOLE server ...
i guess it's a case of "tax money allotment": if you don't spend your allotted tax payer moneies this year, you will get less of it next year, thus this convoluted way of obtaining the data was chosen?
surecast(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @05:16PM
There was probably something very sensitive buried deep. Make it disappear is the usual M.O.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @06:01PM (4 children)
The thing is we pay taxes. We have a right to that data.
OTOH governments are self serving. Just like the Chinese government, the U.S. government and every other government does things in their own best interest. They don't serve the public interest and neither do they intend to. They did not take down these servers for any noble cause, they did it to protect their own interests.
At least with attempts at legitimate elections we can somewhat try to hold the government accountable. But they still try to get away with as much as they can. It's unfortunate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @03:33AM
It's not because of how much money you give the government that you have rights. You're thinking of a business arrangement, which under Fascism 2.0 /is/ the government so maybe you have a point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:40AM (2 children)
Blueleaks also contains PII of victims of crime. So for example, if an abusive husband wanted to find his ex-wife, he now has a strong lead.
Leaking that kind of information just has benefit of mankind written all over it, wouldn't you say?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:50AM (1 child)
Fair enough. If that's really the case (I haven't read any actual reviews on these leaks, I'm going by what you said) then perhaps it's a bad thing these things leaked.
The problem is once they are leaked it's hard to put the cat back in the bag. The police department(s) that allowed said info to leak should be held liable for any damages caused by the leaks due to their negligence.
Also Wikileaks at least, supposedly, screened their leaks before releasing. Now that the U.S. has gone after Wikileaks the leaks from other sources seem to be unscreened. People don't have a good source to leak information to that will screen it first.
The primary reason governments went after Wikileaks is because most of the Wikileaks leaks were embarrassing to various governments. It is exactly this type of information that the public should have complete access to. The fact that governments tend to go after embarrassing information makes me suspect of claims that they are going after blueleaks for any legitimate purpose. Clearly their attempts to go after Wikileaks were mostly not legitimate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:28PM
Buaaaa haaaa haaaa! Yes, if you mean "is it bad about Hillary? Go with it! Is it bad about Trump and Putin? Bury it!" They indeed screened their leaks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @08:26PM
I know, right!
#DefundThePolice
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday July 11 2020, @11:40PM
Or a cavity search [amazon.com] to get ahold of the backup, if the hosters were able to pare the data down a little before storing it.