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Being hacked while writing The Snowden Files.

posted by LaminatorX on Friday February 21 2014, @10:30AM   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, Funny) by clone141166 on Friday February 21 2014, @11:13AM

    by clone141166 (59) on Friday February 21 2014, @11:13AM (#4226)

    "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]

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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @11:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @11:56AM (#4252)

    [Remainder of this story is behind paywall]

    Spoiler alert; it involves mycleanpc and a 64GB hosts file.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @04:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2014, @04:15PM (#4395)

    haha, love it!