Murdoch Voicemail Hacking Story 'Ain't Over Yet' 113
lee317 writes "Reuters is reporting that Rupert Murdoch's headache over the alleged phone hacking by his News Corp's reporters could be small compared to what is ahead. So far, around 20 public figures who believe their voicemail messages were intercepted by journalists at the popular News of the World tabloid are suing News International, the UK newspaper arm of News Corp. After a public apology from the newspaper aimed at 'put(ting) this problem into a box,' a UK judge eluded to the fact that civil cases against the firm could run into next year at least."
UK judge eluded to the fact (Score:4, Insightful)
...those sneaky judges, so elusive.
Perhaps he "alluded" to the fact?
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Thanks. That irked me immediately too. Someone posting on a news site needs to know at least SOME common English words.
This is /., they only know American words like color and honor.
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Its the NotW/TheSun.. i'm just surprised its not in text speak so their readers can understand it.
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Thank you for eliding their elusive allusion.
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Thank you for eliding their elusive allusion.
Or was it just an illusion?
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TFA isn't the full story. (Score:5, Informative)
An investigation into newsgathering practices at the News of the World has so far touched celebrities, government ministers, sports stars and British Prime Minister David Cameron, repeatedly making headline news in rival publications.
TFA leaves out the fact that the News of the World "journalists" also went after the voicemails of military and police officials as well.
I'm amazed that the British Government hasn't arrested more people, if for no other reason than there were serious national security concerns when they first found out about it.
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That's not the British way. This is a lot more subtle The implication is if you break the law, then the authorities will catch up with you. They won't do it all guns blazing. You won't be arrested with a group who can look out for each other. You'll be on your own.
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Erm this was journalists targeting political rivals, union activists etc
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Not quite. High treason as a capital crime was abolished back in the 90s I think. On the other hand, she can appoint whomever she likes (such as editors for rival papers) to the House of Lords in the Queen's Birthday honours (the only honours she can bestow without political interference). That's one thing that the Queen really should use that list for - promoting rivals to those who seek power and influence criminally. Democracy is great, but just like video games you really do want to be able to use cheat
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There'd better not have been a single voicemail in the "national security" category! The idea is absurd!
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Bear in mind that anything which exposes someone with access to secret documents to blackmail ought to qualify.
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And is there any doubt that this has happened here?
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Then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, not to mention several other leading cabinet figures in the government, were certainly hacked. The midnight raid by police suggests that they're beginning to get more than a little concerned that there might indeed be national security implications. The efforts by the Civil Service to block criminal investigations at the time the story first broke also hints that hushing things up was a major concern, over and above any legal liability.
The part of the story that isn't getti
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I not enough evidence
I always took that to mean that they had dirt on senior police and/or the politicians who control them.
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Read the Hugh Grant story. The Prime Minister himself is implicated. A significant number of police are implicated. Murdocracy has corrupted politics itself in the UK. I'm not amazed the government has done nothing, I'm amazed they're allowing the story to build up steam.
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The Guardian rightly pointed out that Hugh Grant's tapes said almost nothing new, that the Prime Minister had been implicated long ago. Yes, Murdoch has corrupted UK politics (well, he wasn't the only one to be fair, but he is a major player). The government knows that Murdoch's papers now decide who win in general elections (much as happens in the US when the moguls decide who gets airplay and who doesn't). Because of this power, the government is effectively powerless.
Mind you, that is its own fault. The
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Don't be amazed - it is rapidly emerging that senior police officers had dinner with people from the press. The reason it has taken so long to look into this may well be related to the Met trying to cover it up on behalf of their friends at News International.
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But that wont happen in Britain, our political parties recognise that Murdoch's media is an election ticket and so wont do anything to piss him off.
Rather than work together to slap down his horribly criminal organisation they would focus on working to please him so he might grant them the next election result.
Because yes, the British population is that fucking stupid, that is, stupid enough to read his trash in the first place.
Worse the Lib Dems were actually going to slap down his Sky takeover, but Vince
It's too late. Hire hackers to solve problems. (Score:2)
Whether the problem is an election, a rival corporation, or a rival nation, chances are an army of hackers can go about solving it in sophisticated or simple ways.
I think we are in the cyberwarfare era. Corporations, governments, and private individuals will be able to hire hackers for doxing services, or other more controversial services.
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Yeah, just like the Watergate burglars "solved" Nixon's 1972 re-election problem. Oh, wait...
Hackers get caught. The repercussions are ususally worse than never having done the hack in the first place.
Eluded, alluded. (Score:2)
Eluded. Alluded. Potatoe. Potatoe. Let's call the whole thing off.
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I just installed my new Elludium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator!
He's saying the judge failed to grasp the facts (Score:2)
eludedpast participle, past tense of elude (Verb)
1. Evade or escape from (a danger, enemy, or pursuer), typically in a skillful or cunning way: "he managed to elude his pursuer".
2. (of an idea or fact) Fail to be grasped or remembered by (someone).
Interestingly this almost reverses the meaning.
voicemail intercepted..? (Score:1)
Rant.
How about listening devices planted in flowers sent to the bereaved? The UK's tabloid press have been out of control for years. This isn't about press freedom, or even freedom of speech or expression. It's about Murdoch's agenda, gutter journalism and selling salacious crap to any window-licker that'll buy it.
We can hope that his sorry newsprint empire will wither like his online presence behind its paywall. Sadly, that's not going to happen...not for as long as the unwashed want innuendo on the front
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...Murdoch chokes on an olive pit and in that single act makes the world a better place?
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Would a pretzel work?
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The next generation of the new aristocracy will take over and it will be business as usual.
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The next generation are James Murdoch and co and lack their father's competence.
Easily solved (Score:3)
Other newspapers? (Score:3)
According to early reports there is evidence that News of the World was not the only UK paper doing this. Is there any effort to identify the others?
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At this rate we will find out in 2047
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Said reports came from news corp papers so there is a slight conflict of interest. It's possible that there was some similar activity at other tabloids but the evidence is pretty sketchy.
"The UK newspaper arm of News Corp" (Score:1)
the NSA already has all this stuff (Score:1)
why the outrage at reporters doing something the government is doing all the time?
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The government don't then print what they heard in a national newspaper. Not excusing any misdirected government snooping of course.
Just enjoying the fact that the News of the Screws is getting the kicking it deserves.
Journalists are criminals (Score:1)
Social engineering is the main method.
But I am fairly certain, though I have no proof of this, just a hunch (hey thats what a reporter would say!) that methods like eavesdropping and payoffs are far more normal than people think.
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Journalism *is* social engineering: you're either tricking someone into giving you info you're not supposed to be given, or tricking someone to go on the record saying something that, taken out of context, supports the narrative the paper wants.
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br> But journalism is also the the stories about a kindergarden visiting a retirement home and those kind of cute articles. No social engineering there.
Or the tech reports about about some new hardware. No social engineering there.
Thats why I made my disclaimer.
Wikileaks (Score:1, Troll)
So, when wikileaks does it, it's important to have this information out in the open. When The Evil, Evil People[tm] do the exact same thing, it's a horrible miscarriage of the expectation of privacy and needs to be loudly denounced.
Aren't we just biasing our views based on if the story portrays the "correct" people as the villains? It's amusing to see the really hateful attitudes and spittle-flecked invective.
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I don't know about you, but I think Wikileaks is a really bad idea. I think all communications that are meant to be private should be protected by privacy laws, even if they are in the course of the conduct of government business. Society just wouldn't work if we expected people to be broadcast on everything they say. If people really don't want any government secrecy, then vote for someone who promises to stop all secrecy. But we shouldn't be held hostage by an idealist minority who demand and end to secre
1998 - Chiquita Banana (Score:1)
In the late nineties, a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter wrote a series of articles about Chiquita Banana. Parts of the series alleged immoral and illegal practices on the part of Chiquita. Eventually, it came to light that the reporter in question had gained access to the voice mail of Chiquita executive officers. The Enquirer retracted the entire series of articles, going so far as to pull them from Gannett's electronic database (the Enquirer was owned by Gannett at the time) leaving print copies as the only
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Think of privacy in the same way you think of free speech. Free speech means sometimes people will say hateful and hurtful things that cause people's lives to be demonstrably worse. But it's still protected because it goes to the very essence of freedom. Same as privacy. Privacy should be protected in the same way free speech is protected.
The truth is almost always desirable, but it doesn't trump privacy. Privacy is completely essential to freedom.
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So, when wikileaks does it...
Except that wikileaks doesn't do it.
But you already knew that.
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Wikileaks doesn't do a damned thing. They take information given to them. This is a violation of privacy done by intrusion into systems the newspapers have no business being in.
Wow, you must be reading Slashdot in Universe B.
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So, here, there have been two "violations". First, obtaining data, then publishing it. By only doing the second, Wikileaks keeps its hands clean and wears white and is free from any responsibility for its actions. So, which is the sin? Obtaining the data, or publishing it? And if either one of these is evil, then why is the 'ORRIBLE BIASED MEDIA being criticized for it (observe in this thread educated people publically spewing vile hatred), and Manning and Wikileaks get the exact same people writing st
Re:Wikileaks Mod Parent "Insightful" (Score:2)
But there is a big difference in security threat between releasing copies of 6 month old written memos, and listening in on the telephone conversations of the PM in real time.
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I will just reply with this [weebls-stuff.com].
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No, that's like saying Papparazzi have the same rights as Wikileaks.
Wikileaks publishes confidential information exposing government wrongdoing. What these UK tabloids did was spy on Jude Law's voicemails.
What kind of "hacking"? (Score:1)
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Amoral Culture (Score:1)
See this is what happens (Score:1)
when parents set a bad example for the kids.
But dad, you wiretapped my phone, why can't I wiretap yours? What makes you better than me?
Kids. Always asking difficult questions.
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I think you've misread TFS. The journalists are not doing the suing. The suing is by "20 public figures". The journalists are the villains of this story, and are employees of Murdoch, who is the villain of pretty much every story.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
The villains are those who buy Murdoch's products.
For example, if you have Sky TV subscription then you are part of the problem. Everything from NotW to Fox News is your fault.
Boycott Murdoch's products globally (Score:3)
It is always elitist dogma bullshit framed as patriotic-religious public interest dogma. Fox is just one of many....
Without the Internet and WWW news resources, no one in any country gets the truth today. Broadcast and publishing news is all about hype, snipe, pop, frame, spin, faux experts, pseudo pundits....
The more the citizens of any country listen to broadcast and publishing news the greater the stupidity or illiteracy. Yes, I have just insulted the general public of every nation, but the truth neve
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I beg to differ, it IS possible to deliver news in a neutral and responsible way.
I was in Japan during the earthquake. It was a very strange experience listening to the staff at Fukushima talking about the situation there and then reading the exact opposite of what they said on the BBC and CNN web sites. CNN I can understand but I really expected more from the BBC. They would pick one word out of a press conference and make it into a headline and a story.
On the other hand NHK, the Japanese equivalent of the
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Looking at the flip side, TEPCO are a bunch of lying bastards and a journalist wouldn't be doing his job - or any job at all, really - if all he did was echo their words and not provide any sort of analysis. The Japanese aren't some magical honourable super-race, despite the fantasies of some Japanophiles. They're a bunch of humans and most humans in the shit (especially when they're running big businesses) will lie or mislead no matter where they come from.
Secondly, the tsunami is awful and all, but from t
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I never suggested that the Japanese don't lie, and in fact some of my Japanese friends really don't trust the government (or banks for that matter). My point, however, was that the only source of information about Fukushima is from the people who are actually there, which includes international scientists and observers so lying would be difficult. What the BBC did was to take maybe a single word totally out of context and build it into a story full of speculation and outright scaremongering.
My comment about
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Oh, wow. Indeed. But, either way, "intercepted," what exactly do they mean by that?
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Intercepted: if you are caught being rich.
Wiretapping: if you are caught being poor.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Intercepted - British English (eg http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/56 [legislation.gov.uk] )
Wiretapping - American English
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You must be a Brit. The correct term here in the states is Freedom Listening.
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They hacked mobile phone voicemail. Was a pretty simple "hack" for most, some was social engineered afaik.
They broke the law. If it was a teenager their life would be ruined, Murdoch seems to think that apologising gets them out of it. Far from it, seeing as some were cabinet ministers.
The whole thing boils down to an endemic problem within (at least) News of the World, so far it hasn't been seen that the rest of News Corp conducts themselves in this way.
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They hacked mobile phone voicemail. Was a pretty simple "hack" for most, some was social engineered afaik.
Perhaps even simpler than that...
I'm amazed the carriers haven't come in for any criticism. Voicemail accounts could be accessed from any phone by entering a PIN - and they were mostly preset to a default, such as '1111' or '1234'. In these cases, you just needed the phone number of the celebrity. Call the remote voicemail service, enter the PIN, and you'd be in.
I remember working for a cellphone reseller in 1997, and being surprised by this. The company leased handsets to the stars of certain soap operas,
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When I worked for Orange, many moons ago, remote voicemail access was disabled by default. It could only be used after the customer set up their own PIN.
If this was and is the case with other networks then this "hacking" is down to social engineering. That or famous people using their publicly-known birthdays as their PINs.
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so this is just like what that teen did to Palin, right....
that teen who was sentenced to a long time in JAIL!!! Depending on the countries of the reporters and the public officials, this could easily be "espionage" which is against US and UK laws and carries BIG trouble... maybe they can put them on the same boat with the Brit who hacked the DOD... it's that serious.
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they have summaries now?
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Umm... try reading the story before commenting?
Journalists working for a paper owned by Rupert Murdoch intercepted the voicemail of (well, guessed passwords for) a lot of famous and/or important people.
After denying it for years and some other shenanigans, finally it's coming to court. News International just want it to go away. They've already said 'OK, we did it, but it was just a rogue journalist. Well, maybe two. Or a few. But not many.' Turns out it may have been quite a bit more widespread than that.
Would they hack computers to get stories? (Score:1)
Seems like a possibility. What then?
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We also dont need to call these people journalists. If you've ever read NotW or it's daily equivalent The Sun you'd know better.
yupos , agreed they are the type of newspaper ,which when used for emergency toilet roll.....
.......more shit comes off the paper.
Well if we're making corrections (Score:1)
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I'm pretty sure the word TFS was looking for was "alluded", not "eluded". The difference is pretty significant in context.
Not only that, but allude is not the right word to use in the first place as, according to TFA, the judge directly said that civil cases against the firm could run into next year at least.
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Yes, your right in you're analysis...