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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: 1, Redundant) by lajos on Friday February 21 2014, @01:23PM

    by lajos (528) on Friday February 21 2014, @01:23PM (#4275)

    This is complete bullshit.

    Maybe I should start blaming the bugs I commit in code on the NSA. Although, since I use source control and backups, it would be harder to prove.

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  • (Score: 1) by d on Friday February 21 2014, @02:46PM

    by d (523) on Friday February 21 2014, @02:46PM (#4328)

    I wonder if the data could get somehow recovered from the hard drive...

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Open4D on Friday February 21 2014, @03:02PM

    by Open4D (371) on Friday February 21 2014, @03:02PM (#4341) Journal

    Maybe I should start blaming the bugs I commit in code on the NSA. Although, since I use source control and backups, it would be harder to prove.

    But the NSA would change your source repository's internal data structures, and your backups. So the lack of any evidence should actually be taken as cast iron proof that the NSA is to blame for your bugs! If your manager doesn't buy it, just let me know ...

    .
    Seriously though, the NSA does have the means and the desire to crack journalists' computers. It's just that these details provided by Luke Harding are unrealistic, and I'm not convinced his "Snowden Files" book really counts as journalism.