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Hackers Forced Announcement of 10th Planet Find

Posted by timothy on from the well-that-was-nice-of-them dept.

JCY2K writes "According to The Inquirer, hackers gained access to the secure server where the data about the new planet was being held and threatened to reveal it. Evidently the discoverers have been withholding this information from the public since 2003 while they waited for full analysis."

6 of 540 comments (clear)

  1. Oh noes! Hackers! by Dirtside · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I traced through the friendly articles, and I'm not sure where the Sunday Independent got the info that a hacker "forced" them to announce their findings. Brown isn't quoted as saying anything about a hacker, and they didn't source that info.

    Of course, what's even stupider is how both the Independent and, to an even stupider degree, the Inquirer make it sound all ominous and elitist that the scientists didn't release the info as soon as they found it. Like, maybe they didn't want to risk the media flaming them for prematurely announcing a tenth planet if they had to recant part of their data?

    --
    "Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
  2. Re:Supports the Hacker Creed by deathcloset · · Score: 3, Interesting

    well, yes.

    But that information doesn't want to be used as fodder for extortion.

    if the hacker had just made the find publicly available that would have been one thing. but, rather, the hacker choose to use his find to threaten the researchers.

  3. sorry, fixed link... by EccentricAnomaly · · Score: 2, Interesting

    teach me not to preview my comments :)

    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/29/science/29cnd-pl anet.html

    --
    There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
  4. Ah The Inquirer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    now there is a reliable news site. NOT.

    I have been involved in events which The Inquirer covered and they not only got the facts wrong, they mangled the facts into out-and-out-lie to push their own warped idea of how things are or should be.

  5. Re:Supports the Hacker Creed by SparafucileMan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    the path of least resistence is steady deterioration. without constant effort/energy keeping information free, it becomes not free, as thermodynamics clearly states.

  6. Re:Supports the Hacker Creed by NitsujTPU · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The ground is contributing to the mass of the planet, thereby increasing the earth's gravitational pull, correct?

    IE, if I annihilated half of the Earth, the Earth would have half as much gravity. This means that the ground plays a role in this process.