Rich has done some excellent reporting on “Climategate.” From what I’ve heard, Russia has been pin-pointed as the source of the hack that made the CRU e-mails public. Not a surprise. Russia is chock-full of expert computer hackers. However, I haven’t heard any speculation in the media about this aspect of the story.
Rich, what do you think is going on here?
Were the hackers sponsored by/a part of the Russian government?
If so, what do you think about the timing? Had they hacked into the East Anglia University computers long ago, and were continuously monitoring e-mails, and chose this date for a reason, or, did they just happen to coincidentally hack in a month before the U.N. summit in Copenhagen?
If it’s not the Russian government, who?
If it is the Russian government, why?
(Of course all of Threedonia is welcome to speculate and add their two cents.)
Print
Digg
StumbleUpon
del.icio.us
Facebook
Yahoo! Buzz
Twitter
Google Bookmarks
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
MSN Reporter
MySpace
Orkut
Ping.fm
Reddit
RSS
Slashdot
Technorati
Tumblr
Webnews.de
Rich, briefly, addresses this, here: http://www.threedonia.com/archives/17519#comments
My thought is that they were worried some sort of legally binding agreement would come out of Copenhagen.
The Russians, also, released info that the climate scientists were only using data from Russian surface stations, which were incomplete. Easier to fudge missing data? (Just speculating.)
Thanks, K.C. I forgot about that comment from Rich. So, Rich does think it was at the behest of the Russian government. Why isn’t the media talking about that more? We have a government sponsored break-in and publication of information from a private University under the jurisdiction of another government. Isn’t that news in and of itself?
The media seems to have taken this fellow’s line, as gospel, regarding anything that threatens their orthodoxy:
http://www.thesportsexaminer.com/webapp/images/stories/TSXpix/200-sgt_schultz.gif
“I see no-thing, no-thing!”
I get that, Kenn, but wouldn’t attacking the Russian angle strengthen their position? One could use that as an argument that the release of the e-mails was politically motivated by Russia to enhance their position in oil on the world market. It’s Big Oil! The left loves to use that as an excuse for anything they don’t like. Why aren’t we at least hearing that in the media?
Well, if it’s not a conspiracy – it’s laziness. Come to think of it, the latter makes more sense.
Maybe somebody forgot to send out the memo that the “Russia is always good” meme is no longer obligatory.
Well Ivan did us a favor.
I think the American populace is getting more support lately from Russia and China by default than we are getting from Obama’s administration and the 111th Congress.
Excellent point, Anonymous. Which raises an interesting question; are Russia and China looking at American Conservatives through the adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend?”
Whew – been a busy day. And just to make you all jealous, I’m doing an interview with Steve “Junk Science” Milloy for Front Page later today. If it goes well, I’ll see if I can snag him for Radio 3D.
Anyway, as to the question at hand, it’s almost undoubtedly not a “hack”. If you want the techie explanation, go here:
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/FOIA_Leaked/
The shorthand version is that some of the e-mails were using programs that automatically delete the e-mail off of the server, once the user downloads them. When you look at the e-mail files (which I have) they are neatly arranged, and there are thousands of them. So, for it to be a hack, we have to believe that some hacker not only hacked the server, but hacked several personal computers and THEN went through the trouble of carefully re assembling that mish-mosh in a logical order. It strains credulity.
What seems most likely is that CRU began assembling their files in-house, in case they had to respond to the FOIA, and either: 1) some whistleblower inside CRU uploaded them to the Russian FTP, or 2) CRU left them on public server that was not protected by the University’s firewall, where somebody (possibly Russian) stumbled across them. It has been reported that Jones did just that in another case, so many think this is the most likely scenario.
Alternately, McIntyre proposed the following theory:
http://climateaudit.org/2009/12/10/weaver-solves-climategate/
Anyways, it does make sense that the Russians would be trying to derail the AGW train. They sit on top of some of the world’s biggest reserves of oil and natural gas. I can’t imagine that they are happy about the prospect of a bunch of whack jobs artificially reducing demand for one of their biggest revenue sources.
To clarify, you think the timing was coincidental? It turned out to be incredibly fortuitous, but that was an accident of chance? I don’t disagree, nor agree, I’m too ill-informed to have an opinion, but I just want to make sure I understand yours.
Ruf – I doubt that the timing had much to do with Copenhagen. I’m way out over my skis here, but – in the two scenarios I presented – I’m guessing that either a) our unknown whistle blower was worried that Jones would start deleting files and e-mails because the FOIA was getting close (as Jones said he would in one of his e-mails), or b) Jones was assembling the files on the public server and our Russian friend got all excited and posted them. The timing was certainly fortuitous, and suggests Divine Intervention, but my guess is that it was coincidental.
Thanks! I like the divine intervention angle. That also explains the record snowfall as Obama and Hillary returned to DC.
Rich… I also thought the FOIA was the triggering event here. It seems the most plausible reason given that they have these enviro-Hajj’s (not mine, but I can’t remember where I heard it) every year or so and this is just the latest greatest opportunity.
FOIA is one of two things… a trigger for open government and transparency or an “Oh Shit I better shred and delete everything!” moment. I’d wager it was the latter, though I’m open to the leaving them open on an unsecured server explanation.