We can confirm Ecuador cut off Assange's internet access Saturday, 5pm GMT | Hacker News Reader

We can confirm Ecuador cut off Assange's internet access Saturday, 5pm GMT

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44 pointsryanlol18 comments

Does anyone know what the cryptic tweets[1][2][3], that this tweet was following up to, refer to? onion address?

1. https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/787781519951720449 2. https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/787781046519693316 3. https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/787777344740163584

SHA-256 hashes of future documents to be released.

It's insurance to make sure Ecuador doesn't turn Assange over.

In what way does this ensure that they don't turn Assange over?

It does prove he has some documents which other holders of the documents can ascertain he had and presumably shared with others in some sort of dead man's switch setup.

Definitely unclear if posting those hashes is a winning move though.

Commitment in cryptography context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commitment_scheme

They appear to be SHA256 hashes.

To get philosophical, when are we really free?

We seem to be learning, at various levels, that the very people we elect to represent us --our employees-- have distorted the contract they have with us to the point where they think it is OK to deprive us freedoms as they see fit.

This isn't good. It has the makings of something very ugly going forward. It's the proverbial slippery slope.

That... is very strange. Why did Ecuador cut off his internet? Hyperbole and conspiracy aside, that would seem like a very overt warning to Assange (if true) that if he continues to release, Ecuador will withdraw its protection. Very strange.

There's rumors it's related to a pending charge for grooming of a minor online, who knows though. I'm sure we will find out the real reason in the next few days so I'll wait for that rather than go into full tinfoil hat conspiracy theory territory.

>...Hyperbole and conspiracy aside...

good luck with that.

Seems pretty strange that he can't just hop on 4G, they had that the last time I was in London.

It'd be pretty surprising if they were actually jamming wireless networks, but I guess that's what these tweets have to be implying.

Wouldn't it be easy to intercept 4G, e.g. by setting up a fake 4G cell. Anyway, their previous tweets state that contingency plans have been enacted, which surely implies they've set up something alternative.

I've got to think that Wikileaks assumes the transport layer is insecure - wired or not.

He's probably not allowed anywhere that gets 4G coverage, at least not while also possessing a device capable of connecting to 4G or 3G

He's in a building in the middle of the city. There's definitely 4G coverage, and I don't see why he would not be able to get a hold of a phone. He's a guest there, not a prisoner. Equador won't give him asylum but deny him basics like cellphones.

We're you inside a foreign embassy at the time? There are very good reasons that modern embassies often have countermeasures against signals being transmitted into and out of them (including sometimes being constructed as faraday cages), except for those controlled by the government the embassy represents.

He has a window he can open, there's definitely reception inside his room. Unless it's actively being jammed.

It's Ecuador not Russia/US.

Even then the embassies aren't dark they'll have a secure zone if there is an intelligence operation in them that might be shielded.

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