I dont really understand how it would be difficult to leak something on your own. If I had sensitive information on a thumb drive, I would: -buy a brand new cheapo laptop -find an open wifi somewhere (have to avoid cctv somehow - create some social media / youtube / reddit / other forum profiles, add a few quick friends and what not -upload the data and drop it all over the web in many locations -shut down and throw the laptop in a lake

Am i missing something?

Strikes me that the issue is not so much leaking/uploading something but rather it being seen by the right people to make a difference.

There could be a blog out there detailing everything going on but if no one knows it's there it makes no difference. The digital equivalent of the proverbial tree falling in a wood.

Lol, do you know quickly an explicit photo of a party head would spread? I would log right on to The Donald and drop a copy there, but blur out any illegal stuff, and provide a direct link to the real download. That sht would spread like wildfire

what if it was leaked information about republicans? I've heard those kind of people are in DC also

They aren't really partisan over there. They think most republicans are cucks. They really just like Donald Trump, thats about it. But they hold Trump to high standards - if the picture was of Trump, they would still spread that shit.

Straw purchase a cheap used laptop in cash. Don't use craigs list or eBay or anything that would leave a record. Find a garage sale or something. Toss it in a lake when you are done

This - cash only. Buy it in one state, drive to a different state for the upload (wear sunglasses and a hoodie) upload, then drive back home. Profit(!?)

Throw it in a lake? What are you, a shill? xD But seriously, a lake sounds like a bad idea and too easy to recover. But I think I know what you mean.....whether you choose the lake route or not, maybe smash the laptop into pieces and do something about the fingerprints, hair fibers, skin oils, etc. If you know how to melt laptops to gloop, that's pretty helpful too but I don't think most people know how to do that safely....(would capacitors explode?) How often do whistleblowers get caught anyway?

I think whenever the state wants to find somebody, they do. The weak point in the idea is however you received that information/flash drive. If the state caught that guy, you are doomed

Yeah you're probably right about the weak point being "he's the only agent that had this info, get a witch hunt on him!" but there must be some success stories out there? What did they do differently? Apart from the "escape the country" ones like Snowden.

Remove the hard drive or SSD and shatter the platters/run a drill through the flash chips. If the storage is chips on the motherboard, drill through those. Remove the wireless card and destroy it thoroughly. I think that would just about do it.

Or use Tails, in which case all you'd really need to do is destroy the wireless card. Put another one in and use the laptop for whatever normal stuff you want; no point in wasting a perfectly good computer.

But honestly I'd rather damage the environment just a tiny bit to save the country xD I'm not sure I would trust any components at all although I don't know how such bugging technology works. But I heard that Intel CPUs (from Israel?) have bugging capabilities. I hope that's not true because the i5 is pretty sweet. :/ Windows 10 sucks though, big time. Privacy nightmare.

Both AMD and Intel have backdoor technology. Intel's goes back as far as...Core 2, I believe? It's a mess.

Hmm. Now I'm wondering if the management technology could be used to rat out Tails users. Goddammit...why is everything awful?

How do you turn the bloody things off!? I want out of this dictatorship totalitarian nightmare! What back doors are we talking, btw? User data? Tracking device? Has anyone been able to prove there's bugging in them and how often they activate or whatever? Is it reliable to look at the software that tells you if your computer is "calling home" with the network or whatever.....don't tell me they can track you even without Wi-Fi! :/

How do you turn the bloody things off!?

You don't: https://boingboing.net/2016/06/15/intel-x86-processors-ship-with.html

http://io.netgarage.org/me/

It has carte blanch access to everything, and you should probably assume that no matter what your BIOS settings might be, it has the capability of reading your RAM and hard drive(s) and sending that data over the internet.

The good news is that it's not looking like AMD's version is anywhere near as problematic, so if Ryzen doesn't suck, maybe buy one of those?

I want out of this dictatorship totalitarian nightmare!

Me too, fam. Me too. I'll let the links answer the rest of your questions.

It's not covering your tracks that's a problem, it's the fact that only so many people had access to the data, and they can work down the list until they get to you.

Not sure the lake is necessary. Pull and physically destroy the drives. Deliver remaining parts over to a waste disposal company that disposes of electronics. Lost in a mountain of sold / shipped off to reclaim materials.

Sometimes it's just not that simple to leak without obtaining and being represented by legal counsel without being exposed.

But not to Wikileaks at the moment.

[deleted]

But I'm not on my couch

What's wrong with Wikileaks? Down or not trustworthy?

Almost certainly compromised and used as a honeypot by the CIA. /r/WhereIsAssange /r/WhoIsWikileaks

If this is indeed the case, what alternatives are there?

That seems like a good way to end up dead.

If this is indeed the case, what alternatives are there?

How do you turn the bloody things off!? I want out of this dictatorship totalitarian nightmare! What back doors are we talking, btw? User data? Tracking device? Has anyone been able to prove there's bugging in them and how often they activate or whatever? Is it reliable to look at the software that tells you if your computer is "calling home" with the network or whatever.....don't tell me they can track you even without Wi-Fi! :/