Posted by
Catmman on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 11:26:34 AM
From
JunkScience.com:
It has become fairly obvious this archive was not "hacked" or
"stolen" but rather is a file assembled by CRU staff in preparation for
complying with a freedom of information request. Whether it was
carelessly left in a publicly accessible portion of the CRU computer
system or was "leaked" by staff believing the FOIA request was
improperly rejected may never be known but is not really that
important. What is important is that:
- There was no "security breach" at CRU that "stole" these files
- The files appear genuine and to have been prepared by CRU staff, not edited by malicious hackers
- The information was accidentally or deliberately released by CRU staff
- Selection criteria appears to be compliance with an or several FOIA request(s)
More:
The files appear to have been accumulat[ed] in preparation of a
possible court-ordered FOIA release on a server to which the public had
access. It is not "hacking" to access files that are publicly
available. It may have been unwise/improper to store the file on a
public server, but that is a different matter. There is no evidence
that anything illegal occurred in the release of the files.
The hacking allegation, of course, was a terrific distraction device.
Here is video (a few days old) with some initial speculation about the e-mails as well as speculation this may have come from a whistle-blower.
While it is possible a hacker did indeed 'hack' the CRU, the CRU has offered no evidence of this. There has been no corroboration that the CRU has involved the authorities in any investigation - other than an internal CRU review of security procedures. It is also entirely possible these files were compiled as Mr. Malloy states above, which belies the media meme these files were "stolen" or obtained "illegally".