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Comment by error54 | Hacker News Reader

Also, what's the point of releasing password protected files to public? I mean, they give you the password thus kind of making the whole password thing a moot point.

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It proves that the author of the rant is the leaker of the data, not just some guy linking to data someone else posted.

It also causes all the data to be released atomically even if it took a while to upload to all the places.

Ah that makes sense. Thanks tlb.

> It proves that the author of the rant is the leaker of the data, not just some guy linking to data someone else posted.

I don't see what would stop you from stating the password to a file you didn't upload.

That's why for these types of archives the password actually contains the credentials.

true, but in this case the password contains "antis3c" [Antisec], the group that is responsible.

So download it, decrypt it, and pick a different password. Takes a couple minutes, tops. And if your 'release' gets more attention than the original, how does the original prove that's what happened, or even get heard?

You can see who came first, the internet knows.

The internet attributes much to the wrong sources. And forgets many redactions. I wouldn't trust such a thing to the internet.

because you wouldn't know the password before the public announcement, and after the announcement it doesn't matter.

It also allows the file to be widely disseminated and mirrored before revealing what it contains, as an anti-DDOS measure.

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