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fleg writes:
"The Guardian is reporting that while the author of The Snowden Files was writing it, paragraphs started self-deleting."
From the article:
By September the book was going well - 30,000 words done. A Christmas deadline loomed. I was writing a chapter on the NSA's close, and largely hidden, relationship with Silicon Valley. I wrote that Snowden's revelations had damaged US tech companies and their bottom line. Something odd happened. The paragraph I had just written began to self-delete. The cursor moved rapidly from the left, gobbling text. I watched my words vanish. When I tried to close my OpenOffice file the keyboard began flashing and bleeping.
[ED Note: Some of author's claims are of course unverifiable, but his insiders view of the early days of the story are interesting even so.]
(Score: 5, Funny) by clone141166 on Friday February 21 2014, @06:37AM
Paragraphs deleting themselves, keyboard "flashing and beeping"... this is why you should never drink beverages near your computer!
(Score: 1) by TWiTfan on Friday February 21 2014, @09:47AM
Yeah, the idea that the NSA could take over someone's computer is crazy!
Just like it was crazy a year ago to think that the NSA was archiving everyone's phone calls, emails, and browser history.
If real life were like D&D, my Charisma score would be a negative number
(Score: 5, Insightful) by dilbert on Friday February 21 2014, @10:20AM
*IF* the NSA cared about what he was writing, and they took the time to crack into his computer (plausible, but unlikely), there are so many other ways to prevent the information from being published without alerting the user. They could just delete the entire file, they could corrupt system files so his computer would crash, etc.
This guy wants free advertising among the ignorant masses who have no idea about how computers work so he's making stuff up. (I'm not trying to argue that there isn't a real threat of being hacked while working on the Snowden story, just that the attack wouldn't look like this).
(Score: 5, Interesting) by SMI on Friday February 21 2014, @12:28PM
"*IF* the NSA cared about what he was writing, and they took the time to crack into his computer (plausible, but unlikely), there are so many other ways to prevent the information from being published without alerting the user."
Perhaps alerting the user was the whole point. They'll let him publish, but they want him to put the TLAs in a certain light, and the easiest and most effective way to do that was to make that point very obvious to him. Considering some of the other stunts they've pulled in regard to the fallout of the revelations, there isn't much that I wouldn't put past them, especially at that time. I can say for a fact that the terminal hijacking which is described is *entirely* possible...
(Score: 1) by jonh on Friday February 21 2014, @08:13PM
Maybe the NSA did delete his paragraphs while he was watching -- with the expectation that he'd go public with these ridiculous-sounding revelations, and damage his reputation in the process. An espionage double-counter-bluff?
(Or maybe I just made that all up? I don't know who to trust any more...)
(Score: 1) by Richard Nixon on Friday February 21 2014, @08:48PM
Your idea is much more sound than the guy above you. Attempting to discredit the free press is a tricky business...
(Score: 1) by Richard Nixon on Friday February 21 2014, @08:46PM
Even for me, this is a little much.
(Score: 1) by tsqr on Friday February 21 2014, @07:39PM
Actually, it IS pretty crazy, given the circumstances. From the paragraph in TFA preceding his description of the "hack": "Still, back at my home in Hertfordshire I took a few precautions. I worked offline." So, apparently NSA has figured out a way to remotely hack a computer that's offline.
(Score: 1) by tibman on Friday February 21 2014, @08:09PM
Jumping air-gaps via speaker/microphone is an actual thing now. Pretty creepy and awesome : )
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(Score: 0, Redundant) by killal -9 bash on Friday February 21 2014, @09:22PM
How hard would it be to use electronic warfare technology to transmit a bunch of backspace key signals into the antenna (i.e. the cable) that connects his keyboard to his computer?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @10:01AM
I suppose it all depends exactly what is in your beverage of choice. Absinthe in this case maybe?
(Score: 1) by Skittles on Friday February 21 2014, @10:41AM
My thought exactly, this has nothing to do with that entire bottle of coke he poured into the laptop last week, I'm sure of it.