WikiLeaks
In the business of Internet leaks WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange are right on the top. With so many leaks attributed to the whistleblowing website, we decided to put together all of their leaks into one ranking so that there is some space left to feature other contenders. Apart from the recent release of the Iraq and Afghanistan war documents, other leaks by WikiLeaks include the content of Sarah Palin’s email account, emails and documents of University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit and a video of an air strike in Baghdad that killed two Reuters staff and 10 other people.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
A month before its release an unfinished workprint of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was leaked on the Internet. The leaked movie file was downloaded millions of times and producers feared braced for an impact on the box office. But the film went on to do good business.
A month before its release an unfinished workprint of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was leaked on the Internet. The leaked movie file was downloaded millions of times and producers feared braced for an impact on the box office. But the film went on to do good business.
Saddam Hussein execution video
Within hours of Saddam Hussein’s execution a video of the hanging found its way to the Internet. This was followed by another more extensive video of the execution and another post-execution video emerging days later. These videos sparked a global controversy.
Microsoft Windows source code
In February 2004 portions of Microsoft’s closely guarded blueprint of its Windows operating systems (Windows 2000 and Windows NT4.0) were leaked over the Internet. The incident had then raised fears that access to the source code of the popular operating system could allow hackers to attack PCs.
Japanese nuclear power plant secrets
In 2005, an engineer with Mitsubishi Electric Plant Engineering used his personal computer for company business and his infected PC passed on confidential information to the Internet.
List of Communist spies
A list of 240,000 names of Soviet Union-era spies in Poland was published online in February 2005 sparking wide interest in Poland and other countries.
Porn pirates list
A list with the names and addresses of over 5,300 individuals suspected of illegally sharing pornographic films online was posted on the Internet in September, 2010.
Halo leaks
Microsoft’s Halo franchise is notorious for pre-release leaks. The latest in the Halo series Halo Reach followed the steps of its predecessors to reach gamers’ consoles before it was intended to by its publishers.
Brangelina baby pics
Two magazines payed millions to have the rights to first publish photos of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s daughter Shiloh Nouvel. But even before the magazines could hit the newsstands the photos were up on two gossip websites.
courtesy: ibbnlive
image source: reuters
image source: reuters
