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Being hacked while writing The Snowden Files.

posted by LaminatorX on Friday February 21 2014, @06:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the Nations-Spying-on-Authors dept.

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.]

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by toygeek on Friday February 21 2014, @06:52AM

    by toygeek (28) on Friday February 21 2014, @06:52AM (#4215) Homepage

    Didn't read TFA. My BS'o'Meter pegged just reading the summary.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by dilbert on Friday February 21 2014, @11:52AM

    by dilbert (444) on Friday February 21 2014, @11:52AM (#4376)
    Are you implying that you read TFA when your BS'o'Meter doesn't go off?

    I don't think that's allowed here.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by SlackStone on Friday February 21 2014, @02:03PM

    by SlackStone (815) on Friday February 21 2014, @02:03PM (#4438)

    Seriously, if I were writing a book on Snowden and the NSA, I'd use some paper just in case. The summary flagged my BS meter too.

  • (Score: 1) by Beukenbosje on Saturday February 22 2014, @03:48AM

    by Beukenbosje (697) on Saturday February 22 2014, @03:48AM (#4730)

    I do what I've mostly done over the last 15 years: I read the comments first. If they're any good, I *MIGHT* RTFA..