Video Raises Doubts About Attkisson's Claims of Malicious Hacking 105
Was former CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson's computer hacked? Earlier claims that it was are being scoffed at by some security experts, after looking at cellphone video she has released intended to demonstrate that an intruder was deleting files. The video, say various commentators, may instead just indicate a stuck or faulty backspace key. It could be that both things are true (a stuck backspace key, as well as malicious intrusion targeting Attkisson for her political reporting), but it would be helpful to know more of the details on which CBS's (unnamed) hired experts concluded that her machine was breached.
" that an intruder was deleted files." (Score:1)
Disappearing files (Score:5, Funny)
but files disappearing character by character is exactly what happens in movies! Surely it must be the same in real life? Hollywood wouldn't lie to me?!?!
Re:Disappearing files (Score:5, Insightful)
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That is basically how somebody without a clue would fake being "hacked" Hollywood style....
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The only one deleting actual data in the video is her, herself.
It's the fight club syndrome!
Re:Aww cmon (Score:5, Funny)
Just because it's equally plausible that she's a moron, they rule out malice? What kind of razor is that?
Double edged?
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Sounds kinda like Heinlein, only not quite?
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Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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But that's not how it works in movies.
Too bad she didn't invest in one of those computers that splashes a skull and crossbones on the screen with a blaring siren to let her know she was being hacked.
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First question here would be if she uses a wireless keyboard.
In the early days of wireless keyboards they had a tendency to cause interference between two of them due to lack of proper protocol and authentication, but this may still happen if something goes wrong.
Reporters need their scoop... (Score:1)
After my experience with reporters, I really don't give them much credance, as they make money on what BS they can make up, either via "anonymous sources" or other means, in order to get eyeballs.
I remember when belonging to a couple subculture lists, a person asking to join, then starting to ask people oddball questions, such as "do you sacrifice live animals on an altar" out of the blue. Well, people replied to said person snidely... come to find out a few weeks later, she made an expose on how this subc
More than a misunderstanding, it's a fake (Score:5, Informative)
Attkisson's 'Hack' In a nutshell, Attkisson claims the government hacked her computers in December, 2012 and she reported it to CBS at the time. She claims a PC and her personal Mac were hacked, and the media has accepted this claim with no skepticism. Mediaite went with the assumption that she shot it in December, 2012.
But a sharp-eyed commenter over at Media Matters observed that Attkisson's video was shot during the Valerie Harper debut on Dancing With the Stars in September, 2013. Here's what WiscoJoe observes:
Has Ms. Attkisson provided an explanation of when this video was taken or why she waited for a year, and until after she went forward with public allegations, to take video documentation of her computer being 'hacked'? Is this the standard of investigative journalism that she was doing while at CBS? If that's the case it may explain why she no longer works there.
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lots of victims wait until the time is right.
Right. Then they fake a video as "evidence" that it happened.
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lots of victims wait until the time is right.
Right. Then they fake a video as "evidence" that it happened.
Not to mention that they continue to use a laptop for their work for at least 9 months, despite believing it to be completely controlled by "the man". They don't even bother to start using another computer to store their supposedly incredibly important evidence.
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I want a DVR that can record shows from the future
Unfortunately, she's not quite that stupid (Score:3)
According to WaPo [washingtonpost.com], she claims that this iPhone video was taken in September 2013, and not related to the alleged December 2012 incident. It looks like crooksandliars jumped the gun here.
The rather blatent Dancing with the Stars episode playing in the background may have even been intentional to provide additional credence to the video (the timing is dead on with her claim).
That's not to say she's not otherwise mistaken (or outright dishonest), but this isn't the smoking gun you're looking for.
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As I said to the OP you're (correctly rebutting...) replying to, what is showing on a "television screen" is not a real good indicator of the actual time.
It's "an" indicator, but you have to believe two things that are kinda common today : that she's not lying, and that she doesn't have a DVR.
In this case you're correct that it has absofuckinglutely nothing to do with the incident and... that doesn't prove or disprove anything outside the small point we've made.
evidence of time travel (Score:2)
As I said to the OP you're (correctly rebutting...) replying to, what is showing on a "television screen" is not a real good indicator of the actual time.
It's "an" indicator, but you have to believe two things that are kinda common today : that she's not lying, and that she doesn't have a DVR.
What kind of DVR can playback tv shows from the future? Is that a MythTv plugin?
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What kind of DVR can playback tv shows from the future? Is that a MythTv plugin?
More interestingly is it piracy when you download a show that hasn't been filmed yet?
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BS. It's probably just one of the DOD IP addresses that T-Mobile uses for its carrier-grade NAT.
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Howard Hunt did it!
you can tell by the whiteout on the screen....
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Per the CBS article:
"This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion."
So if the 'hacker' was so sophisticated as to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity then how can they possibly conclude there was ANY 'unauthorized' activity? They would have to find some evidence of it (and they say the did not) to state otherwise.
So I can only conclude the 'forensic analysis team' was spouting pur
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I think she should be sued for copyright infringement.
Sharyl Attkisson (Score:1)
She doesn't happen to moonlight for the IRS, does she?
When the video was made is the clincher... (Score:3, Insightful)
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Why does nobody fake "evidence" convincingly anymore? As a member of the public, I really feel quite insulted.
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I think the establishment looks at the top grossing apps on the various app stores and figures that the people buying that kind of product don't require clever lies and properly fabricated evidences to be manipulated.
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I have to say that is a convincing argument.
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Psst. Buddy...
wanna buy a slightly used moon landing?
Re:Stop giving her attention (Score:5, Insightful)
I think a technical debunking of her claims of being hacked is ideal Slashdot material.
We don't have enough information yet. to properly analyse those claims. What I've seen written so far has been sensationalised and technically incoherent. That's reason enough to dismiss it, but not reason enough to consider it proven false.
It's is worth know what Attkinson is... (Score:2, Insightful)
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She got played by bad sources pedaling BS stories about Benghazi.
Given that the President of the United States and Secretary of State themselves personally pedaled BS stories about Benghazi (e.g. downplaying the terrorism angle and blaming an internet video), I suggest you adopt a more cynical and suspicious attitude toward the "official line" from the current administration. Not saying Attkisson's sources were right, just that this administration is willing to lie through its teeth to keep an unfavorable story from going public.
In particular, it is likely that the off
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The video looks like what a hack on TV or the movies looks like. It doesn't look like what an actual hacker would do. That's the problem.
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This.
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Sorry, but even that is suspect. She could have borrowed, rented or stolen the Mac.
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Fake but accurate?
Classified documents (Score:2)
Earlier story reported she discovered classified documents planted on here computer, most likely as a trick to indict her.
If this is a stuck backspace key, then what about the documents?
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What with Snowden and Wikileaks, every reporter in the world has classified documents on her computer.
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Because the cat was out of the bag? If you're planting contraband on someone's computer to get them imprisoned, and they figure out they've been compromised, you abandon your shitty operation and run for the hills.
Just like the DA drops the charges and "runs for the hills" when you say "hey, that's not my dope, the cops must've planted it there!" It's her word against theirs, and so far, her claims don't seem to be passing the laugh test.
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lol only noobs get hacked (Score:1)
i mean how stupid do you have to be to leave your computer unprotected and expose it to hACKING?
OMG SOMEBODY IS HACKING ME AND HOLDING DOWN MY SHIFT KEY WHILE I TYPE
Re:lol only noobs get hacked (Score:4, Insightful)
I do not know how stupid you have to be, but I do know there are a lot of these people out there.
I used to get infected computers all the time, ask them what kind of anti virus they run and get told they don't need them because they don't have a virus. I don't know how many people say they turned it off because it kept quarantining some file they downloaded to help them get movies or music or programs. They all swear the guy in the chat room knows what he was talking about. I even had one moron attempt to sue me in small claims court because a program I installed kept deleting his files. Of course it was an antivirus and the files were ones he downloaded from some p2p network. I replaced several components and a case on a computer that took a flight from a second story window because it kept freezing and locking up. After the owner picked it up and took it home, he called angrily complaining that he just paid me $500 and it does the same damn thing. I stopped over and found the problem to be a bad cord on his mouse- $20 dollars later, his old system would have been just fine still.
I don't think you would believe how many of those people exist out there.
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Personal grooming belongs in the bathroom folks. (Score:4, Interesting)
This is what she gets for doing bodywork in front of the machine.
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The rubber dome under the enter key might have been sitting just a hair away from making electrical contact, and only made contact when the keyboard deformed slightly by being touched. This would explain the psuedo-random nature of it, and the fact that it didn't happen during post.
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My theory: Intrusion of successive ^H 's (Score:2)
And the backspace key just followed suit.
It seems her claims are somewhat exaggerated (Score:1)
Do I think she was being monitored? Yes. Was she actually intruded? Maybe. Does she have evidence of any of that? Not that I can see.
She was talking to people the government doesn't want talking to the media. So they were probably watching her.
Did they invade her systems to snoop or destroy evidence? We've seen them do that before so it is possible.
These videos and her descriptions of events however make her sound confused.
Media Matters? Really? (Score:1, Troll)
That said, I have no problem with taking a hard line on Attkisson's claims. Extraordinary demands and extraordinary evidence and all that sort of thing. So why not find a journalistic outlet instead? Example of MM spin: they quote "experts" who cla
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This got modded up? Media Matters may be left-leaning, but they don't make stuff up when they show video of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly saying bigoted things. If you're mad that they cover right-wingers more than left-wingers, its mainly because right-wingers are more prominent in media and make far bigger and frequent gaffes. Don't complain about bias when that's the case.
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This got modded up? Media Matters may be left-leaning, but
No, you don't get it. They don't just happen to be "left leaning", they are left leaning by definition and organizational mission. They are very much like the SPLC in that regard -- from time to time individuals have approached the SPLC asking why they don't give airtime to exposing various left wing hate groups and individuals, and the response has always been "That's not our mission -- we are just pointing out problems we see on the right." If Media Matters started criticizing left leaning liberal exce
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That's not a scandal, that's just a (partial) description of an ambassaor's job.
She wasn't hacked (Score:3)
She wasn't hacked. She has a bad keyboard, a bad USB controller chip in the keyboard, or something similar happening.
I thought I was hacked a couple of years ago. It turned out to be a dead USB controller chip in my Logitech trackball that would periodically "stick" the mouse buttons in up/down positions and randomly move the mouse pointer around the screen. By sheer fluke, it would look like someone was remotely controlling the mouse and making menu selections, closing windows, and so on. But it was just that the mouse buttons were random-firing while the cursor moved about more slowly, so of *course* it would click on something sooner or later.
Being bi-polar and subject to paranoia as a result, I was really freaked out by the whole episode -- until I borrowed a test mouse, plugged it in, and all the problems went away.
That's not to say I've *never* been hacked, but hackers cover their tracks a lot better and don't tend to futz with things like remote-controlling a desktop. They just hit up the file system directly.
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Being bi-polar really sucks sometimes. It comes with a fair degree of paranoia during the manic phases at the best of times, and having something like this *actually happening* just sends me over the top and into nutbar land.
NSA at a hardware level! (Score:3)
Lets not forget, the NSA doesn't just use software to spy on us.
In the past few years, hardware has taken on the new role, and, they have been installing secret microchips into your backspace keys. Not only can they see what your doing, they can now delete text from your science homework!
How do you stop it from happening?
Tor Keyboard, now with complete backspace anonymity. Coming to mass media websites soon!
Raising Doubts, eh? (Score:2)
There is no doubt that this was not a 'hack'.
I have a Macbook Pro sitting on a shelf next to me that has a stuck control key that randomly registers during use. It's not physically stuck, and even after fully removing the key and zapping PRAM/resetting everything and even reinstalling the OS, it randomly engages. I've witnessed this myself on different models of Macs with different keys being affected.
This lady just wants to blame everyone else for her lack of mental acuity and imagines she is more importa
The Obverse ? (Score:1)
Maybe it was benevolent hacking, as opposed to malicious?
(Murphy's corrollary: "Friendly fire, isn't".)
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Leaving the hatchet sticking out of it was a good clue it was hacked.
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Did you actually watch the video?
If that was really a hacker, and not a stuck backspace key, they he had a serious flare for the over-dramatic.
A real hacker would have simply hacked in, deleted whatever files he wanted, and left without a trace. He wouldn't have sat there playing mind games with the reporter, manually deleting her stuff one letter at a time.
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Considering that "Traditional American Values" included treating Women and Blacks as property, I'm not too sure I want to go back to those days.