The Cryptome.org whistleblowing platform was temporarily offline for a day. Cryptome specialises in the release of all types of classified documents and publishes the confidential papers of companies, governments and intelligence services. Operator John Young's top priority is openness – without compromise, and in all directions.

The web site has repeatedly been under attack because of this attitude. This most recent outage was due to a block by its internet service provider. A month ago, unknown attackers cracked the site and manipulated the server in such a way that it deployed malware. The same was suspected to have happened this time – but those suspicions appear to be unfounded.

In an email, the IT executive of a law firm notified the internet service provider and the operator of Cryptome that the whistleblowing site had been infected by malware. John Young insisted that many of the alleged malware files didn't even exist and that an allegedly infected file proved to be clean. Shortly afterwards, provider Network Solutions took Cryptome offline.

In an email exchange with the IT executive, the latter insisted that his malware discovery had merit. Young responded by transferring his data to a different server. According to the operator, the move has now been completed and the site is online again; however the search feature has temporarily been disabled.

(fab)