Operation Leakspin

Operation: Leakspin was a project by Anonymous, with the goal of sorting through recent WikiLeaks releases to identify and raise awareness of potentially important and previously overlooked cables. According to the project, exposure had a bigger potential impact than DDoS attacks. Operation: Leakspin gave members of Anonymous and citizen reporters a structure to work together to find potentially valuable material. Operation: Leakspin included translation and explanation of cables, quality control, culture jamming and publication channels.
Background
When the Dutch police arrested a 16-year-old in December 2010 for personally creating a substantial botnet and independently conducting a DDoS attack on websites such as Mastercard.com and Visa.com, a subset of those present and involved at the time decided to move towards more long-term-viable goals such as promoting dialogue and spreading the reach of the WikiLeaks cables.
The name is a pun on the "Leekspin" joke animation.
Goals
Leakspin represents a sharp departure from the tactics of Operation Payback. Rather than attacking perceived enemies of the pro-WikiLeaks movement, the sole focus is on propagating material determined to be of public interest. This potentially could lead to media outlets and the general public focusing on the issues uncovered by the released diplomatic cables rather than the morality or sensibility of DDoS attacks as a form of protest or Julian Assange's current legal travails.
It is difficult to ascertain how much support Operation Leakspin had garnered in the Anonymous community.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu