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Hacker Tinkering With Yahoo Stories
Lifter writes "A hacker named Adrian Lamo had access for three weeks to the web-based content control system for Yahoo!'s news section, according to a story at SecurityFocus. He tinkered with a couple of stories without anyone noticing, then edited an August Reuters story about Dmitry Sklyarov, so that it said that Dmitry's program raised "the haunting specter of inner-city minorities with unrestricted access to literature, and through literature, hope." He also added a quote by John Ashcroft,"They shall not overcome. Whoever told them that the truth shall set them free was obviously and grossly unfamiliar with federal law." Funny stuff in itself, but the SecurityFocus story explores the harm that could come from a trusted news site being easily hacked in these times."
Heh. Yeah, I'm not sure that intentionally introduced errors in news stories are much worse than the un-intentional ones that are routinely there anyway. I've been personally close to enough stories that make the paper to realize how horrible the quality of most daily reporting truly is in this country (and don't even get me started on the amateur outfits like indymedia).
I have to see something several different places (which are not obviously merely copying one another) before I'll start to seriously give it much consideration as fact--and even then, realize that large parts of the story will be missing or incorrect for other reasons.
One of the best things about last week, though, was that in the middle of all the chaos and speculation, there were a lot of private individuals who just took some time out and posted up pictures they had taken or things they had seen with their own eyes. Put enough of those things together, and you have a far more accurate story than what a single reporter can do in the same amount of time.
No relation to Happy Monkey
You can learn more about some of his other hacks here: http://www.terrorists.net/
:)
Hes an amazingly brilliant guy. I have spent a few 2600 meetings in SF with him. I hope that nothing comes of this type of "cracking" satire. However I would like to say that Adrian is a true hacker. One conversation with him and you will come to this understanding. True hacking can transend computers and into social aspects like Adrian has aparently done.
Hes cute too
"Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness." - M
Hi!
Yeah, but...
Ten years ago you were considered to be unusually well-informed if you subscribed to two newspapers--even if those newspapers mostly regurgitated national content from the Associated Press wire. Nowadays it is a trivial exercise to cross-reference stories in "new media" news sites (CNet, ZDNet) with traditional American print media (N.Y. Times, Wall St. Journal, Washington Post) as well as sites from overseas.
Here's a thought: how about a website, like SlashDot or Kuro5hin, that provides links to a variety of different angles on a given story. Pick a story or two per day and provide links (with a modicum of commentary) to coverage from a variety of sources.
Hmmm... A splendid idea to contemplate, and thus a good reason to procrastinate.