In an exclusive interview published Wednesday in the New Statesman, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims that within the large encrypted ‘insurance’ file are documents damaging to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
“There are 504 US embassy cables on one broadcasting organisation and there are cables on Murdoch and News Corp,” Assange says in the interview.
The WikiLeaks ‘insurance’ file is available for download through popular file-sharing websites. Its contents cannot be read unless a key is released to unlock the encryption.
Assange has threatened to release the key to the 1.4GB file if anything should happen to him or WikiLeaks. The subject of the file have been subject to significant speculation.
According to PC Magazine, “the document is encrypted in AES-256, a U.S. government standard of encryption adopted in 2001, and is virtually impossible to read unless Assange provides the 256-digit key.”
In the New Statesman interview, Assange also claims that the U.S. government intends to coerce a confession from Pfc. Bradley Manning to clear the way for a criminal conspiracy case. “The aim clearly is to break him and force a confession that he somehow conspired with me to harm the national security of the United States,” says Assange.