WikiLeaks releases encrypted 'insurance files' on Facebook and Twitter ahead of Bradley Manning sentencing

WikiLeaks has released encrypted “insurance” files on Facebook and Twitter, prompting internet speculation that the whistleblowing service is sending a message to the US government ahead of the sentencing of Bradley Manning.Around 400 gigabytes of data in files that can only be opened if WikiLeaks releases the key to the public was posted on 16 August with a request for users to ‘mirror’ the files.US soldier Manning was arrested in Iraq in 2010 on suspicion of having passed diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. He admitted in a US court to sending 470,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports, 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables and other materials to the website and was convicted on several counts last month.He is currently awaiting sentence and faces up to 90 years in prison.The newly released files are the latest in a series of so called insurance files released by the service. In July 2010, WikiLeaks added a 1.4GB file to the Afghan War Diary page which was widely speculated as a warning that the service could release highly sensitive information in the event of any harm coming to Julian Assange or the website itself.Another insurance file, 65GB in size, was released in February last year.Nobody, not even the US government, can infiltrate the files without the release of a key from WikiLeaks.

Whistleblower: Bradley Manning was convicted last month

Please mirror: WikiLeaks insurance 20130815-A: 3.6Gb http://t.co/WAXtszZl8E B: 49Gb http://t.co/Ca1Hqi1VCJ C: 349GB http://t.co/iu00DmfQ0A

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 16, 2013