The Panama Papers are the largest data leak to date, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a German newspaper and other journalist groups.
The Panama Papers, which originated from the law firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama, have exposed the activities of politicians, tycoons and businessmen from all over the world, including many Greeks. They have only recently become searchable and anyone can search their database.
[su_button url=”https://www.secnews.gr/102818/ta-panama-papers-proilthan-apo-hack-se-email-server-tis-mossack-fonseca/” target=”blank” style=”glass” background=”#e4f126″ color=”#0404047″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”20″ icon_color=”#ffffff”]See also: The Panama Papers came from a hack on a Mossack Fonseca email server [/su_button]
It took the team about a year to unearth all the documents and expose the dirty secrets of the world's elite. But it's not unprecedented. It's just the latest in a series of leaks and data breaches that have brought to light things that some people wanted very much to hide.
So let's look at some notable leaks that have occurred in recent years:
IRAQ WAR LOGS (October 22, 2010)
In 2010, US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning began releasing classified documents to Wikileaks. The first document was a Department of Defense report about its website. Soon after, Manning released material about the Baghdad airstrike in which civilians were killed by military helicopters. Manning then released logs of the Iraq war and material about airstrikes that caused many deaths. It is the largest leak in US military history. See them here: https://wikileaks.org/irq/
DIPLOMATIC CABLES (November 28, 2010)
Manning also leaked over 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables, messages sent between foreign embassies and the United States from 1966 to 2010. Manning was eventually captured and is now serving a 35-year sentence. Amnesty International praises his actions, arguing that exposing government corruption was the catalyst for the Arab Spring.
SNOWDEN (June 1, 2013)
In May 2013, Edward Snowden flew to Hong Kong with documents proving that the NSA was spying on American citizens. The former CIA and NSA employee gave the documents to journalists who then published them in the Washington Post and the Guardian. He is currently in Russia, which has granted him asylum.
[su_button url=”https://www.secnews.gr/103900/edward-snowden-o-bin-landen-einai-zwntanos-kai-zei-mesa-stin-poluteleia/” target=”blank” style=”noise” background=”#26f16e” color=”#0404047″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”20″ icon_color=”#ffffff”]See also: Edward Snowden: Bin Laden is alive and in luxury![/su_button]
THE FAPPENING (August 31, 2014)
In August 2014, an unknown hacker breached the iCloud accounts of prominent people, most of whom were famous women, and gained access to their photos. The hacker copied the photos of these people, including Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton, and many of the photos were nude. The leak was nicknamed Fappening. Apple has since patched the vulnerability, and two men were arrested on suspicion of being behind the attacks.
[su_button url=”https://www.secnews.gr/84084/google-%CE%B1%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%AC-%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%B1-%CF%84%CE%B9%CF%82- %CE%B1%CF%80%CE%B5%CE%B9%CE%BB%CE%AD%CF%82-%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%B1-%CE%BC%CE%B7%CE%BD%CF%8D%CF%83%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%82-100/” target=”blank” style=”bubbles” background=”#26ebf1″ color=”#0404047″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”20″ icon_color=”#ffffff”]See also: Google, responds to threats of 100 million lawsuits [/su_button]
SONY PICTURES (November 24, 2014)
Sony Pictures was hacked by a group called the Guardians of Peace, who copied 100TB of data from the company’s servers. The hackers said they did it in response to the film The Interview, which satirized Kim Jong Un. High-quality copies of unreleased films and scripts for upcoming productions were released. Sony Pictures President Amy Pascal was forced to resign after offensive and abusive emails from her surfaced. The story cost the company $15 million.
[su_button url=”https://www.secnews.gr/86635/%ce%bf%ce%b9-hackers-%cf%84%ce%b7%cf%82-sony-pictures-%ce%b5%cf%80%ce%b9%ce%ba%ce%bf%ce%b9%ce%bd%cf%8e%ce%bd%ce%b7%cf%83%ce%b1%ce%bd/” target=”blank” style=”soft” background=”#f1264f” color=”#0404047″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”20″ icon_color=”#ffffff”]See also: The statements of the Sony Pictures hackers[/su_button]
LUXEMBOURG TAX LEAK (December 1, 2014)
Whistleblowers working for one of the world’s largest accounting firms provided information to the Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The data revealed that companies such as Pepsi, IKEA and AIG were enjoying incredibly low taxes due to secret deals they had with the Luxembourg government. The leak has sparked a public debate in Europe about corporate tax avoidance. View the documents here: https://www.icij.org/project/luxembourg-leaks/explore-documents-luxembourg-leaks-database
ASHLEY MADISON (July 15, 2015)
The dating site Ashley Madison, which was used by married people to have extramarital affairs, was breached by the hacker group Impact Team, who managed to get 10GB from the site's servers. The hackers threatened Ashley Madison and its sister site Established Men that they would publish all the data if they did not shut it down, which the sites did not do, and eventually everything came to light.
[su_button url=”https://www.secnews.gr/95335/%cf%84%ce%bf-ashley-madison-%ce%ad%ce%b3%ce%b9%ce%bd%ce%b5-hacked-%ce%b5%ce%ba%cf%84%ce%ad%ce%b8%ce%b7%ce%ba%ce%b1%ce%bd-%cf%83%cf%84%ce%bf%ce%b9%cf%87%ce%b5%ce%af%ce%b1-37%ce%bc-%cf%87%cf%81%ce%b7/” target=”blank” style=”ghost” background=”#f1bf26″ color=”#0404047″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”20″ icon_color=”#ffffff”]See also: Ashley Madison hacked – Evidence exposed 37M users[/su_button]
