If somebody does, an alarm is triggered, as a burglar might set off an alarm breaking into a house at night.These programs deter some leakers and keep employees from doing stupid things.
Japan currently treats leakers more leniently than other countries do.
Forty years ago this week the New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, the largest leak of classified documents in American history until WikiLeaks came along.Julian Assange's outfit is Barack Obama's problem, and though the current administration lacks the vindictiveness and criminality of the Nixon White House, it has pursued leakers with just as much vigour.
On the one hand, potential leakers should be reassured that journalists are unlikely to have to choose between their vow of confidentiality and their freedom.
SWITZERLAND may be under unprecedented pressure to end bank secrecy and turn over names of its banks' tax-evading foreign clients, but it continues to take a brutally hard line against leakers of financial information.
As punishment prosecutors sought a sentence of at least 60 years, in part to discourage future would-be leakers.
Confronted with the fact that it can be a criminal offence to reveal the name of a covert CIA agent, the Bush administration decided to appoint a special prosecutor, in the form of Patrick Fitzgerald, who made his name chasing down terrorists, to find the leakers.
And the new German site wants to allow leakers to decide how their documents will appear.If the history of file-sharing is any guide, rivals will multiply.
OpenLeaks is trying, and unlike WikiLeaks it plans to let leakers decide who gets their material; but nearly a year after Mr Domscheit-Berg started, it still isn't accepting submissions.
The media, fearful for press freedom, are crying foul.Japan is much less punitive than other countries towards leakers.
So far, the court's focus has been on finding and punishing the leakers.
