A whistleblower from Australia obtained and published a sensitive report from spy agency Defence Intelligence Organisation back in 2012. The catch? He decided to upload it on 4chan and did not get the overwhelming response that he was looking for.
Although the report, which was quickly taken down by moderators, was done anonymously, the name Michael Scerba, junior Defence staffer, was revealed in Australia's The Age.
The documents were titled "Julian Assange is my hero" and came with Scerba's message, "I release what I feel should be in media: bombings, civilian deaths, actions of 'terrorists' that just aren't reported in the media."
He then states that, "to my dismay I just got a bunch of 'fake and gay' remarks and the secret documents went 404 [website not found] about 4 comments and 1 hours later."
Additional details include a former Defence Signals Directorate officer making a "fortuitous" discovery of the leak. By this time, though, many other users had already reported the incident. The Australian Federal Police tracked the IP address to Scerba's home in Richardson, south of Canberra.
A broken disc was discovered here containing a 15-page document. 4chan users may have ignored the report but it was reportedly labeled as "Secret, 5 eyes," which pertains to the alliance of Australia, the US, UK, New Zealand, and Canada.
No date has been set for Scerba's trial but insiders point to Scerba pleading guilty to at least one of the accusations against him. Justice Andrew Refshauge came out with a statement saying, "I have read a confidential affidavit, filed without objection, which sets out reasons, which I accept, as to why the public disclosure of the contents of the affidavit and the sensitive information would be prejudicial to national security. It appears that [Scerba] has proposed to plead guilty to one count and the other count may also be subject to a plea, although that has not yet been proposed."
