Dearlove calls Assange an undignified flag bearer who distracts from the important issues WikiLeaks raises.
“So what I think is important in this is the Assange story as such is ultimately a distraction. He's a very undignified flagpant in my opinion for a very important issue.”
Dearlove outlines basic IT security protocols that US systems violated: no downloads, no printing, keystroke auditing.
“Now the first thing you do is if you're trying to protect secrets, you don't have any openings on your system. You can read on the screen. Every keystroke is audited.”
Dearlove warns WikiLeaks may cause government officials to stop writing records, eliminating crucial audit trails.
“And that is to, let's say, encourage government servants not to write full records to conduct business by word-of-mouth.”
Dearlove identifies WikiLeaks' disclosure of 251,287 State Department telegrams as a game changer by sheer scale.
“We'll come back to that in a minute. And Wikileaks is disclosing 251,287 US State Department telegrams. 251,287.”
Dearlove describes basic IT security measures that should have prevented the leak but were not in place.
“Now the first thing you do is if you're trying to protect secrets, you don't have any openings on your system. You can read on the screen.”
Dearlove says WikiLeaks leak resulted from stunning US IT incompetence following post-9/11 information-sharing mandate.
“The fact that these are in the public domain is a consequence of stunning incompetence in terms of the US government's IT security and should never have happened.”
Dearlove says WikiLeaks is releasing 251,287 State Department telegrams over what will be three thousand days at current rate.
“Wikileaks is disclosing 251,287 US State Department telegrams. 251,287. Now in the past, the journalist who specializes on writing about the State had disclosed 10 State Department telegrams, it would have been a sensation.”