Bank of America cuts WikiLeaks (Computerworld) services

IDG News Service - Bank of America joins the growing list of the financial and technology companies cut WikiLeaks, a move that comes in the middle of the speculation that denunciation site prepares to disclose information on the services.

"Joins the American actions previously announced by MasterCard, PayPal, Bank Visa Europe and others to discuss no transactions of any type we have reason to believe are destined for the WikiLeaks" the Bank said in a release issued Friday. "" "" "This decision is based on our reasonable grounds to believe that the WikiLeaks can be engaged in activities which are, among other things, incompatible with our internal policies for the treatment of payments," said the Bank.

WikiLeaks, reaction, November 28, caused global controversy with a cache of 250,000 leaks U.S. Embassy cables, was rapid. "Is your company? "business with Bank of America" said the late WikiLeaks twitter message Friday. "Our advice is to place your funds somewhere safer."

Founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange said in an interview with CNBC Friday as WikiLeaks soon free information about banks. In an interview with the magazine Forbes last month, he said that WikiLeaks was prepared to reveal information about a bank that would show "unethical practices".

In recent interviews, Assange did not name a speficic, but in an interview with IDG News Service Bank last year, he said "we're sitting on 5 GB of Bank of America, one of the drives of the Executive.

At this time, said Assange WikiLeaks was reflecting on how to present data. "This is a difficult problem." We might just dump everything into a single giant zip file, but we know for a fact that has a limited impact. To make an impact, it must be easy for people to dive and it looks and something to it. »

Recent publication of the Wikileaks from U.S. Embassy cables has aroused the wrath of Governments and a rash of attacks between WikiLeaks detractors and supporters.

In the midst of controversy, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has its servers WikiLeaks to break the rules of the service on the content which may injure others. Institutions PayPal and credit card payment for WikiLeaks service was interrupted.

Decline in services to financial institutions financial institutions have been affected and then with pro-WikiLeaks denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Life Assange, meanwhile, has been discussed. Assange is wanted for questioning by the Swedish Government concerning the allegations of sexual assault of two women-related incidents in the month of August in the country. He was arrested earlier this month at the United Kingdom after the Sweden launched an arrest warrant. The United Kingdom High Court ruled that the Assange could be released on £ 240,000 ($ défrichait) on bail pending a hearing for the extradition of January.

U.s. Office of the Attorney General investigates Assange towards the release of the U.S. Embassy cables but has not yet charged.

Reproduced with the permission of IDG.net. History of copyright 2010 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Protect your business in a world of WikiLeaks (NY Times)

Entrepreneurs and business leaders should be regarded as a wakeup call and examine how they protect their confidential business information and intellectual property from unauthorized disclosure. Often, the greatest danger comes from leaks internal rather than external security violations. To date, WikiLeaks site depended mainly on an employee or otherwise initiated which first and foremost the leakage of confidential information.

Confidence is not enough to protect your business, so here are some tips to reduce the potential risk of your company a leak and the legal responsibility.

Identify your information "mission critical" and keep on a need to know basis.

What information would be detrimental to your company if it has been disclosed, and who has access? Even if you are not a top secret as Coca-Cola formula, your company has probably trade secrets must be protected and even potentially embarrassing information which would be negative about your brand or reputation light to shine. In General, trade secrets are determining how that gives your business an advantage in the marketplace and may include business plans and others even private - information that is in the form of customer lists.

Not forget your confidential information of the company to receive protection under the act as a trade secret, you must start taking reasonable precautions to protect them - usually by restricting access to this information.

Legally, protect your information.

In addition to restrict access, you can configure additional legal protections to discourage illegal leaks. Confidentiality or nondisclosure agreements must be signed by all employees and independent contractors, and also by existing and potential trading partners. Always ask the parties sign the agreement before share you any sensitive information.

Consider adding a section to your HR manual spelling the responsibility of each employee to protect confidential information. Policies can discourage illegal leaks and give you a legal advantage should information out, despite all your efforts.

Track and monitor access to, and limited copying of confidential information.

Bradley Manning, the soldier who allegedly stole it documents classified military personnel and their past WikiLeaks, had claimed to listen to a CD of Lady GaGa, while he was actually copy cables classified on the same CD.

This could have been easily avoided if there were technical measures in place to prevent an employee to copy information onto a CD drive or zip. That reasonable security measures are in place, unusual behaviours monitoring can also help identify suspicious activity that might indicate a potential leak.

Protect yourself from responsibility to the user if you are a service provider.

Small businesses should take a lesson from the big suppliers who refused service on site WikiLeaks. Amazon, PayPal, visa and others cite shortcomings in their terms of service as justification for refusal to Wikileaks service agreements. If there is pressure from the Government on these service providers, it is likely that the primary motivation of WikiLeaks dumping was to protect themselves against liability for alleged illegal WikiLeaks activities. Learn from these companies and good contracts has implemented to protect your company - responsibility and avoid being at the mercy of the actions of someone else.

Charley Moore is the founder of rocket lawyer legal services website and legally easy blog editor. He argued this VentureBeat column.

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