I downloaded and extracted the files in a fresh Linux virtual machine with tools for viewing Word, Excel, and PDF documents. After reviewing the contents for about 30 minutes, the data appears technically authentic—not AI-generated—but nothing particularly noteworthy stood out.
The files "Vulnerabilities/Fetched Data.txt" appear to be output from an automated security scanner that targeted public-facing web servers. Some directory labels are inaccurate. For instance, a company listed as a crypto exchange—Cryptopro—is actually an IT consulting firm focused on cryptography and PKI.
A number of Word, Excel, and PDF files containing corporate reports and similar materials appear to be publicly accessible online and even indexed by search engines. I was able to locate several by searching their titles.
One file, "Part 1/Report those Russian ringleaders/russRingleadersPerDFUNAFO.txt", seems to be the likely source of the "Kremlin Assets in the West" mention. It’s a brief list of Twitter accounts and may have been assembled through open-source intelligence methods.
While the leak might contain some mistakenly published or sensitive material, I didn’t come across anything as significant or dramatic as implied by the article linked.
From a quick scan of the file listing of the 18GB compressed folder linked for download elsewhere, looks like it's a collection of completely random data hacked over a number of years from various accounts that may or may not be connected with Russia (Guy Ritchie? Kanye West? Why?).
Also, why a PNG?
2022-12-02 10:25:11 ....A 10530 10092 Leaked Data of corrupt officials/Part 1/Leaked Data of Kanye West's Instagram account/IP, Port, Hostname.png
2022-12-02 10:26:08 ....A 39852 37635 Leaked Data of corrupt officials/Part 1/Leaked Data of Kanye West's Instagram account/SSL info.png
2022-12-02 10:27:01 ....A 124662 114729 Leaked Data of corrupt officials/Part 1/Leaked Data of Kanye West's Instagram account/Vulnerabilities.png
Some bank data seems to be exposed here (internal control panels), but in other cases it's just a dump of public website HTML?
10TB seems just plain wrong (didn't bother downloading the whole thing, though).
Clever. Instagram is an image hosting platform. At the firewall, guards watching the network traffic wouldn't notice png encrypted screenshots of cracked IP addresses being exfiltrated, drifting in plain sight in the usual pixel streams.
I didn't bother looking at the files, but I would wager that it's not as clever as you suggested here. If there's gold in this leak, I'd suggest it's buried in an Everest of crap.
Seems very dubious, new accounts in the comments urging people to download it ( u/Sonnigeszeug) all the 'sources' go back to the same file, claims it is on torrent trackers yet providing no evidence for? A very sensational article with no proof and if it was true downloading russian government data with no idea whats in it? the sweetest of honey right here
"Leaked data" seems like a stretch. Sounds like someone ran a vulnerability scanner on some Twitter accounts. Don't have time to go through all the data though, so maybe there are interesting things in there.
It is is a real thing though that Russian databases are routinely compromised or stolen.
People that engage in tax fraud in places like Mexico and Russia often legitimately do it because they do not want the mob/cartels to find out how much money they have and then extort them. The data gets out.
Yeah, from the screenshots on Twitter a lot of it looks like archives of publicly accessible Twitter and Telegram accounts, plus data from old breaches. That makes it seem pretty unlikely there will be anything new and valuable here.
10 TB file from a random website that I have never heard of? Seems like if someone was to leak this a more reputable news agency would have been notified instead of... trendsnewsline
If this is real, there will be claims made and the general public has no way to verify. 10TB is technically challenging to handle for the vast majority of people. Would be really important for someone to re-upload and index the extracted files for online browsing.
Did anything even happen after the Mossack Fonseca law firm was hacked? All I remember was a few people stepping down from govt positions, some rich folks get caught in the xfire (some football player used them).
Readit News
The files "Vulnerabilities/Fetched Data.txt" appear to be output from an automated security scanner that targeted public-facing web servers. Some directory labels are inaccurate. For instance, a company listed as a crypto exchange—Cryptopro—is actually an IT consulting firm focused on cryptography and PKI.
A number of Word, Excel, and PDF files containing corporate reports and similar materials appear to be publicly accessible online and even indexed by search engines. I was able to locate several by searching their titles.
One file, "Part 1/Report those Russian ringleaders/russRingleadersPerDFUNAFO.txt", seems to be the likely source of the "Kremlin Assets in the West" mention. It’s a brief list of Twitter accounts and may have been assembled through open-source intelligence methods.
While the leak might contain some mistakenly published or sensitive material, I didn’t come across anything as significant or dramatic as implied by the article linked.
Also, why a PNG?
Some bank data seems to be exposed here (internal control panels), but in other cases it's just a dump of public website HTML?10TB seems just plain wrong (didn't bother downloading the whole thing, though).
Clever. Instagram is an image hosting platform. At the firewall, guards watching the network traffic wouldn't notice png encrypted screenshots of cracked IP addresses being exfiltrated, drifting in plain sight in the usual pixel streams.
Dead Comment
A lot of ways to hide nasty surprises in such a file, too.
I create new accounts because i spend too much time on hn...
I suggest to download stuff because i assume people on HN are well equiped to check it out.
Click yourself some cheap vm in the cloud, download it, check it out. Cost involved? $10
Do you expect journalists with less it knowledge to do this? I mean yeah they can and should but people on hn should do too
Fake German detected. A true one would write "I'M A Software Engineer In Germany".
People that engage in tax fraud in places like Mexico and Russia often legitimately do it because they do not want the mob/cartels to find out how much money they have and then extort them. The data gets out.
Just a question I asked below. That's the size column in WinRAR (left of the Compressed column). Is it by coincidence also the number of files?
Dead Comment
Did anything even happen after the Mossack Fonseca law firm was hacked? All I remember was a few people stepping down from govt positions, some rich folks get caught in the xfire (some football player used them).
But nobody went to jail.
Yes, the journalist who reported on it was killed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_Caruana_Galizia#Panama_...
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