The anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks has confirmed reports of a security breach that has led to a massive amount of U.S. diplomatic cables being released onto the Internet with the names of sources revealed.
In a statement posted Thursday to Twitter, WikiLeaks blamed Britain's Guardian newspaper for the disclosure, saying that a journalist revealed the password to unlock the entire unredacted archive in a book on WikiLeaks published earlier this year.
A spokesman for the newspaper denied any wrongdoing, saying they were told that the password would expire within hours. It adds that no details on the location of the files was published.
Until now, WikiLeaks had released to major media outlets censored versions of U.S. diplomatic cables, as well as confidential material on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The breach has led to the publications of some 251,000 cables online, which contain sensitive information that could put U.S. sources at risk.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
