Busted – by a hacker!
Posted by gnn1 on Sunday, 19 August 2007
It’s always great when hackers, who are truly gifted with computers in some capacity or another, are useful instead of a pain in the arse. It’s even better when they bust government officials.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports today that a US hacker created a programme-Wikiscanner-which has identified computers at offices belonging to the CIA, BBC, Reuters, and the UN being used to edit various Wikipedia entries-either to insert insulting or offensive information about others, or, occasionally, to remove it.
Some samples of edits from the article:
“Wikiscanner” points to Central Intelligence Agency computers as the sources of nearly 300 edits to subjects including Iran’s president, the Argentine navy, and China’s nuclear arsenal.
A CIA computer was the source of a whiny “Wahhhhh” inserted in a paragraph about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s plans for the office.
Wikiscanner … identified a BBC computer as being used to change US president George W. Bush’s middle name from “Walker” to “Wanker” at Wikipedia.
A computer belonging to Reuters news service is listed as adding “mass murderer” to a Wikipedia description of Bush.
Humourous in some cases, but also an example of why Wiki is not the most reliable of sources.
And I certainly do hope there is an enquiry into the malicious alterations! (There are more examples at the source link).
Source: SMH
