Tag: cbs

Journo sues US over hacking

Posted on January 6, 2015 by - News

wargames-hackerA former news writer at CBS has started a law suit, accusing the US Justice Department of illegally hacking into her computers.
Sharyl Attkisson discovered that two of her machines had been accessed to both monitor her stories and delete files during 2011 and 2013.
That’s an allegation that’s been consistently denied by the Justice Department.
She claims that she and the lawyers representing her have strong evidence that’s not the case.  She wants $35 million in damages from the government if a court finds her claims are justified.
Attkinson filed a US freedom of information request and said the FBI had opened a case in May 2013, although she said that she hasn’t been contacted by the bureau.
She claims that the hackers used software to steal work and get access to her passwords.

 

Security experts rubbish CBS hacking claim

Posted on November 3, 2014 by - News

face-palmSecurity experts have poured cold water on CBS hackettes Sharyl Attkisson’s claim that she was being hacked by the government,

In her new book Stonewalled, Attkisson claims that both her personal Apple laptop and a CBS News-issued Toshiba laptop were hacked in late 2012 while she was reporting on the Benghazi terrorist attacks.

In June 2013, CBS News confirmed that the CBS News computer was breached, using what the network said were “sophisticated” methods and unnamed sources confirmed for Attkisson that an unnamed government agency was behind the attack.

However Attkisson released a video she took with her mobile of one apparent hack of her personal Apple laptop. The video shows words typed into a Microsoft Word document rapidly disappearing. During the video, Attkisson’s voice can be heard saying she’s “not touching it.”

Computer security experts who reviewed the video have told Media Matters that Attkisson’s computer had a broken backspace key.

Matthew Brothers-McGrew, a senior specialist at Interhack was quoted as saying sometimes computers “malfunction, a key can get stuck, sometimes dirt can get under a keyboard and a key will inadvertently be held down.”

Brad Moore, also a senior specialist at Interhack said that based on what he saw and was able replicate, there were multiple explanations for this sort of action and a stuck backcase key was the easiest.

Peter Theobald, computer forensics investigator with TC Forensics said that if a hacker tried to infiltrate her laptop and delete her files there would be better ways to do it and it it wouldn’t be so obvious to her.