Climatic Research Unit Hacked, Files Leaked

huckamania was one of many readers to write with the news that the University of East Anglia's Hadley Climatic Research Unit was hacked, and internal documents released. Some discussion and analysis of the leaked items can be found at Watts Up With That. The CRU has confirmed that a breach occurred, but not that all 61 MB of released material is genuine. Some of the emails would seem to raise concerns about the science as practiced — or at least beg an explanation. From the Watts Up link: "[The CRU] is widely recognized as one of the world's leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change. Consisting of a staff of around thirty research scientists and students, the Unit has developed a number of the data sets widely used in climate research, including the global temperature record used to monitor the state of the climate system, as well as statistical software packages and climate models. An unknown person put postings on some climate skeptic websites that advertised an FTP file on a Russian FTP server. Here is the message that was placed on the Air Vent today: 'We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps. We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents.' The file was large, about 61 megabytes, containing hundreds of files. It contained data, code, and emails apparently from the CRU. If proved legitimate, these bombshells could spell trouble for the AGW crowd." Reader brandaman supplied the link to the archive of pilfered data. Reader aretae characterized the emails as revealing "...lots of intrigue, data manipulation, attempting to shut out opposing points of view out of scientific journals. Almost makes you think it's a religion. Anyone surprised?" And reader bugnuts adds, for context: "These emails are certainly taken out of context, whether they are legitimate or fraudulent, which adds to the confusion."

Comments

I would just like to point out....

[Slash.Poop]

I would just like to point out that it is COMPLETELY inappropriate for slashDot to post a link to what is, according to the story, STOLEN DATA. Yes, I know it is out on the internet so anyone could find it.

But seriously slashDot it seems highly inappropriate for you to give people easy access to stolen data.

I have some datums.

[gandhi_2]

I do tech for a school district.

I just installed 75 Acer Aspire Anecdotes, and I have about 10 Anecdotes that failed in the first month. I continue to have at least another anecdote fail every month.

Of course, someone will tell me that anecdote is not 15% of data or something bullshitty like that.

Re:Anthropogenic Causes

[dangitman]

Skeptics will cling to disproved data, hoping it somehow becomes true if they believe it hard enough.

Skepticism is a part of science. The climate change deniers aren't skeptics, they are people with a political agenda.