The Wikipeaks diplomatic cables were *allegedly* stolen by a US Army private stationed in Iraq. He simply accessed the State Department network, and copied them all onto a CD-R. He them emailed them to Wikileaks.

There was no hack - it was just the act of someone with permission to a major network copying all the stuff off, which didn't set off any alarm bells...

If anyone is to blame, it is the lax security of that network which allowed this to take place. And no, it is unlikely that they paid for any of the information, they are not in the business of profit.

What fun? Do you think avionics computers are updated with a USB thumb drive? They are not.

The only USB ports I know of are in the seats of some airplanes, and all they do is provide power, not connectivity.

Many also provide connectivity in terms of playback of iPod/iPad content on the IFE screen but still no connectivity into anything at all useful.

DDOS isn't hacking. They didn't go in and steal peoples information they just prevented the access to the site in retaliation for the slightly pathetic actions of PayPal, MC and Visa. This would be MC and Visa who handle payments for the KKK

Such a massive difference from data being stolen to data being hacked

You need to stop looking at hackers in the way they�re portrayed by the media, it�s really not good for you. Hackers pose no threat to you in the air. Nor, for that matter, do they have much if anything to do with Wikileaks.

Now, the fact that this leak happened means a lot of people missed Day #1 of Information Assurance class... but that�s another topic.

Do you have any evidence to back up your libelous statements?

[Oh and the clue is in their title 'wikileaks', it is not wikihacks or wikicracks. Also, you really should learn the difference between hacking and cracking.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOIC

Do you? I am surprised that many of you confuse criticism of Wikileaks as "libelous" and defend things that are illegally obtained! Do you know what "libel" means?

Are thousands of newspaper headlines stating that pro-wikileaks hackers attacked Mastercard site wrong? If you have information that Mastercard or Paypal site down were not due to hackers, please share it with us.

You sharing your opinion that you dont think what wikileaks is doing is right, is criticism. However, you writing "I am quite sure that Wikileake pays for the information, perhaps enough to tempt someone to hack into unauthorized computers." That on the other hand is libel. You are stating that wikileaks is perpetrating a crime by paying for the cables, which in fact it has not. DO you really think the NYT, the Guardian, Spiegel, etc etc would publish these cables, if there was even a glimmer of chance that the information was paid for?

It seems to me that you are just overly paranoid, and for the sake of your sanity and everyone else's, you should probably turn off the wificard/unplug the ethernet cord from your computer and return to your sheltered little world.

PS As you read this response, I have hacked your computer, stolen all your money, impregnated your wife, and sold your children into slavery in a small third world country on Mars.

The media will report whatever they think will scare the most out of people. These were not hackers, they were people with an Internet connection who installed a piece of software that flooded the sites with traffic. There was no hack involved.

Also, I'm not aware of Paypal being down, so perhaps you have some information you'd like to share with us? Paypal was attacked, but was merely slowed down for a little.

That said - I think this thread is getting a bit too off-topic, so lets keep the topic remotely related to travel if we can.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I saw once where some guys took a Macintosh computer and got it onboard an alien spaceship and used it to fly into mother ship and infect the mothership's computers with a virus. So I think we shouldnt let Macintosh computers on planes.

An alien civilization hundreds if not thousands of years more advanced with a system of computing in no way related to ours. Yet a guy can knock something up on a laptop and bring them all down. I think I was 7 or 8 when I first saw that film and even then it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen. Worst resolution ever