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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: 4, Funny) by bobintetley on Friday February 21 2014, @10:33AM
Couldn't make it all the way through the article, the smell of sensationalist bullshit was just too strong.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by iNaya on Friday February 21 2014, @11:07AM
Imagine what the book he's writing will be like!
He's willing to believe the NSA et al would hack into his office program, and delete paragraphs while he writes, he's willing to believe anything.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TWiTfan on Friday February 21 2014, @01:43PM
Considering the extensive nature of the Snowden leaks, can you blame anyone for being paranoid?
Before the Snowden leaks, if someone had claimed that the NSA was archiving every phone call, email, and browser history in the entire U.S., they would have been called a paranoid tin-foil hatter too.
If real life were like D&D, my Charisma score would be a negative number
(Score: 1) by demonlapin on Friday February 21 2014, @10:45PM
(Score: 0) by killal -9 bash on Saturday February 22 2014, @01:07AM
If unplugging makes you safe, why are NSA buildings encased in EM blocking or absorbing materials?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mojo chan on Friday February 21 2014, @03:30PM
It makes a lot of sense actually. Obviously anyone with those files is going to be a target of spying and hacking attempts. If you read TFA he claims that was not the only incident of this kind, and that he has been very obviously followed in real life too.
It's a standard intimidation tactic. We own your computer, we know where you are and are monitoring you at all times. You are a high value target to us, worth putting guys on to follow. It wouldn't work unless he noticed.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 1) by dingo on Friday February 21 2014, @08:02PM
It's in government agencies' best interest to have you believe they're all powerfull, is it not?
How much hard, physical proof is there NSA actually did all the stuff people and/or other countries claim they've been doing?
(Score: 5, Funny) by clone141166 on Friday February 21 2014, @11:13AM
"By September the book was going poorly - 30,000 words done, but few of them made any sense. A Christmas deadline loomed. I was creating wild, overblown accusations in a chapter on the NSA's close, and largely unsubstantiated, relationship with Santa Claus. I wrote that Snowden's revelations had damaged the tin foil hat industry 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. The computer lost power, the lights went dark, a low humming noise filled the room and a strange coppery taste permeated the air. With a terrifying hiss-snap, a portal opened. From the pool of suspended, shimmering light emerged Al Gore, creator of the internet. His words penetrated the very fabric of the space-time continuum, "Luke, it is time to learn the ways of the force. You will go to the Dagobah system, there you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me."
[Remainder of this story is behind paywall]
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @11:56AM
Spoiler alert; it involves mycleanpc and a 64GB hosts file.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday February 21 2014, @04:53PM
Damn, and I used all my mod points. Hilarious!
A Black, Hispanic, or Muslim voting for Trump is like a Jew voting for Hitler
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @04:15PM
haha, love it!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @03:14PM
Agreed. He sounds like a fraud.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday February 21 2014, @04:50PM
cold_fiord? Is that you? I didn't find it the least bit sensationalist, nor full of bulshit (granted, I only skimmed). I'm not the least bit surprised that his computer was hacked.
A Black, Hispanic, or Muslim voting for Trump is like a Jew voting for Hitler