back to article LulzSec say they'll release big Murdoch email archive

The hacktivists behind a hack on The Sun's website claim to have extracted an email archive which they plan to release later on Tuesday. News International's systems were hacked on Monday night. As a result, visitors to The Sun's website were redirected towards a fake story on the supposed death of Rupert Murdoch by infamous …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Angel

    Well...

    Hopefully there are some juicier tidbits to this release than the Sarah Palin emails.

    Also, I hope most of us can agree that this is a more worthy target for attack than Sony or other gaming sites. There are a lot of sketchy things going on with Murdoch. I, for one, don't trust him at all.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Megaphone

      Sony

      are just as evil as News Corp. Seriously.

      RIAA, Rootkits on Audio CD's, DCMA, ACTA, MPAA, OtherOS, and f'ing over GeoHot - even if he was a sellout in the end.

      1. A handle is required
        Mushroom

        Ever hear the saying, "Forgive and forget"?

        Seriously, stop living in the past. If you have an ax to grind with Sony, take it elsewhere. We aren't interested in your pity-party.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Trollface

          At the risk of invoking Godwin's (though I don't think it quite applies)

          How about those Nazis, eh? Crazy guys, the lot of them. I mean there was that whole Holocaust thing but hey- that'd be living in the past.

          1. NomNomNom

            hmm

            if only we could get at Hitlers emails that might be very revealing. Does anyone know if he deleted everything before he shot himself?

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            @AC 21:32

            Apples and oranges.

      2. The Fuzzy Wotnot
        Pint

        Geo who?

        GeoHot? Yesterday's news! Internet news is so NOW and on the pulse that the typical internet news reader, those people with an attention span shorter than a Gnat's pisser, that by the time you've said NO... is already old and we're off to the next 2 second sound-bite!

      3. Piro Silver badge
        Pint

        Don't forget..

        Shutting down Lik-Sang for importing PSPs before their official release date here!

        A bunch of low lifes - but honestly, I think Apple is taking the cake right now with their bullshit lawsuits.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Devil

      Are you kidding?

      "Hopefully there are some juicier tidbits to this release than the Sarah Palin emails."

      What, did you not see that movie of hers? You know, the one with the Russian guys?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Paris Hilton

      RE: Well...

      Us Brits aren't quite so squeamish about the human body.

      We prefer titbits to tidbits.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Holmes

      The names listed were very old. Hardly a great "hack"

      I left NI 2 years ago and Chris H left a year before me, possibly even longer.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Presumably...

    ...if any of the activities of the execs end up with them appearing in court the first thing their lawyer will do is to point to this release of emails and claim that this now makes a fair trial impossible. Justice will not be done.

    Well done lads.

    *facepalm*

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      anti-coward

      Surely not - Brookes hasnt been charged so case is not sub judice, and just because evidence is in public domain does not comprise the ability of that evidence being presented in a court case...

      1. Brangdon
        Thumb Down

        Hacking makes the data suspect

        I doubt the hacked emails as provided by anonymous would be accepted as evidence, because anonymous could have tampered with them before publishing. And it could be argued that the original email archive on NI's servers are also no longer valid, because if anonymous copied them, who's to say they weren't also able to modify them in-place?

        Unless the police have a pristine copy made before the hack, with proper chain-of-evidence documentation, the hack won't help in court and will probably hinder.

    2. lIsRT
      Meh

      really?

      If it was as easy as that, why don't they just release the emails themselves, but under the banner of "Anonymous"?

      Oh...

    3. Elmer Phud

      Lawyers

      They might try but I doubt if they'd get far.

      If emails carry proof of manipulation of decisions of the Police (and others) to pervert the course of justice, perjury, bribery, blackmail etc. then the judiciary have grounds to tell the lawyers to naff off.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        They will have backups

        And the modification time of the files too...

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Paris Hilton

      the truth

      AC: are you saying that, "The truth will actually set her free?"

      <--- Paris because she wouldn't have lax security on personal vids and pic, oh, erm.

    5. AnonymousNow

      no merit

      Anything can be argued, however, the argument has no merit.

      I do not think the release of emails will give any sort of immunity to criminal prosecution whatsoever.

  3. Drefsab

    Lulz

    well lads my hat goes off to you sir's well played, very well played.

  4. TeeCee Gold badge
    Facepalm

    Ironic?

    I guess that mail hacking is only "wrong" when NI employees do it then lads?

    1. laird cummings

      Can't expect

      LULZ to recognize the distinction. They're really only about their own ego, at the end of teh day.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Holmes

      At last! The moral outrage has arrived

      By all means, my heart truly bleeds for the injustice suffered by Mr. Murdoch and his clan. Truly, it does. HAHAHA! just kidding.

      tl;dr; Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

      PS It IS worse for a professional media organization to behave like brigands than it is for brigands to behave as expected.

    3. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge
      Mushroom

      @TeeCee

      (1) Have you never heard of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"? We can argue the rights and wrongs of retributive justice all day, but it has a long history and many supporters.

      (2) Iff this was carried out by an insider, or as a result of information obtained from an insider, then there is a genuine public interest defence - unlike for the stuff Murdoch was publishing.

    4. Maverick
      Thumb Down

      you do understand?

      what "hacking" means? guess not

    5. Intractable Potsherd
      Thumb Down

      @TeeCee

      It isn't *only* wrong when NI does it - LulzSec and Anonymous are also capable of being wrong, though it is not a foregone conclusion. Equally, NI would not necessarily have been wrong: for instance, if they had been investigating political corruption (for instance, a modern Watergate), then this would be a very different situation. NI overstepped the boundaries this time, and have been caught. Hopefully, Anonymous and LulzSec will keep their eyes on the correct targets (corrupt and uncaring companies and government departments), which is not, per se wrong.

      However, are you telling me that you are not getting some small schadenfreude from NI mails being made public?

    6. pablo011

      hmm...

      Slightly different. LulzSec aren't doing it to make money... NI were.

  5. Old Handle

    Lulzsec?

    I thought they retired? It was time, honestly.

  6. Baked Beans

    LulzSec say they'll release big Murdoch email archive...

    And then they'll be grilled by parliament.

  7. Mad Mike
    Thumb Up

    LulzSec new police?

    If LulzSec have managed to extract emails that show the guilt of senior people at NI, that would make them better than the police!! Even with all the laws in the world working in their favour, the police failed miserably to get the evidence and charge the miscreants. It would seem that criminal investigations are better handled by just about anybody than the police!! Unless, of course, they found the evidence, but it went........missing.

    1. irish donkey
      Megaphone

      failed miserably to get the evidence

      Failed suggests there was an honest attempt to succeed.

      Doomed I tell you... Doomed.

  8. 5.antiago

    Couple of questions please

    I have a couple of questions:

    So, if they do have emails and they release them and there's some super-big bombshells in there, what are the legal implications for their use as evidence? Can NI just claim they are faked?

    A more techie question follow-up question - is it possible to confirm they are real emails? (I.e. not faked ones designed to rile up public opinion for the lulz...)

    Ta for any response

  9. Baked Beans
    Mushroom

    LulzSec new police?

    Yay for anarchy! A private police force arbitrarily using force against arbitrary targets. I for one support our new spotty overlords.

  10. Remy Redert

    re: Couple of questions please

    Well, such an e-mail would give reasonable grounds for the police to subsequently seize and search all of the back-ups to confirm wether or not those e-mails are indeed fake. Then if it turns out they're not fake they'll have obtained legal evidence against the lot of them.

    Unless NI went around cryptographically signing all their e-mails (And their encryption keys weren't nicked in this attack), there is no way easy and certain way for anyone to confirm wether or not a given e-mail is genuine without going through the back-ups to find it. The offline back-ups, that is.

  11. J 3
    Happy

    information seems to have come from, at best, an old database.

    That, or... A database that has not been cleaned of old stuff. Happens a lot, y'know? Hard to believe, I know...

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tampering not an issue

    I wouldn't worry about possible tampering of the email evidence, NI have their mail archived in multiple places and Brooks email was until recently also stored on DVD as well...

  13. TheRead
    Facepalm

    @AC 15:13

    Sure, Sony has been pretty bad in terms of restricting access to their devices and controlling their IP. I am not a supporter of how they attempt to control access to their platforms.

    However, Sony HASN'T, as far as I know, been hacking into the phone records of victims of horrible crimes and tragedies, in some cases causing police to back off from cases and giving false hope to families. Also, I haven't heard anything about the people who brought to light the rootkits on audio CDs showing up D-E-A-D within a few weeks.

    So, Sony might be evil... but they certainly aren't THAT evil.

  14. John G Imrie

    I hope that ...

    none of these emails contradicts papa 'doch and baby 'doch's statements to the Commons this afternoon.

    That would not make them any friends.

  15. Bango Skank
    Paris Hilton

    LuizSec, a division of NewsInternational, a RAMJAC corporation

    Seriously, is there anything quite as air-headed as hacking evidence that would be used to prosecute the weasels?

    Now that weasel-central security has been breached by Air-head Hackers United, NI has a golden "get out of jail" pass because they can claim that any and all evidence may have been tampered with.

    Mega-Paris award to you for the most dimwitted hack of the century, way to go!

    1. Goat Jam
      Holmes

      Well

      "Seriously, is there anything quite as air-headed as hacking evidence that would be used to prosecute the weasels?"

      Perhaps they have no faith that our Lords and Masters have any real inclination to prosecute these so-called weasels?

      I certainly have none.

      The validity of your usage of the term "would" in the above sentence is debatable to say the least.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hacking the hackers

    Hacking the hackers. I approve.

  17. Paul M 1

    Title

    I'm still waiting for the treasure trove of emails that Wikileaks said they have on Murdoch Snr...

    But on the subject at hand, what is the probability this wasn't an inside job? Can't imagine News Int techies having too much loyalty to the Dirty Digger

  18. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Crikey .... it never rains but it pours?

    I suppose the best time to release any emails is after testimony to committee ...... for cross reference purposes to tease out ....... well, inconsistencies is a pleasant enough word for the mealy-mouthed?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Well thats good...

    b coz there will be more info in those emails than there will be coming from the mouths of any of the concerned parties, Plus it may stop the Met police doing their usual cover up of their own corruption.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Terrific

    Now NotW can claim any undesirable email might have been tampered with.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    JESTER ✔ Genuine @th3j35t3r

    Possibly dox'd as J Sparrow.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Diocalm @ NI, the Yard, Parliament, Whitehall, ... anyone?

    It might help to prevent the runs now that Lulz have done their bit?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    63000?

    How could that not be secure? It's WAY OVER 9000!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    Murdoch pwned six ways from Sunday

    Anonymous approves :-)

  25. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    and their next target?

    now's a good time for them to clear the air and finally silence the Right Wing by hacking into George Soros' emails to prove he's not the Left's answer to both Murdoch and Frank...

    ...crickets

    fail at anything other than the usual shortsighted dramatic propaganda to feed the rest of the dole-dependent types. Any of these "hackers" have real jobs and pay their own rents?

    1. Shakje

      Of course not

      They lost them when the paper folded...

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good luck finding an impartial jury for any court cases

    This will only go to give the news more fodder and I'd go as far as saying nobody in the UK isn't aware of whats going on. So much so that if there are any court cases the prospect of finding a true impartial jury will be most colourful.

    Moral being if your going to hack then don't use lame hack's that any 11 year old can work out. Also don't hack joe public, they have bigger bite in the end than large companies.

    Issue realy is phone companies having default passwords, same kind thing as a bank issuing cashpoint cards with default numbers.

    But lets all ignore how lulsec said they were on a break and now sucking up to joe public by giving them more fodder that they don't realy even need. Lets face it - emails obtained illegaly and unverified will realy help things here to go even further downhill.

    Sadly though the news aint goona change until Apple releases a new iPhone - but thats joe pleblic for you.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Interesting development

    I don't think it really matters if the stolen emails can be used in evidence or not. If they contain anything of significance they will allow others to ask the right questions - and that should provide the evidence needed.

  28. anybody
    Big Brother

    Forget about the newspapers, there are much more people doing this

    (Almost) everybody has been missing the point. When newspaper guys can "hack" voice mailboxes, who can't? It's a well-known issue with the service, and there is no fix coming. Anyone can still do it, so why should we care about 3000 "victims" when there are countless more. I wouldn't blame newspapers, but the service provider for a negligence of security and for not sufficiently informing customers about the risk of having voice mailboxes.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    Is 'doch headed for the dock?

    Time will tell.

    My guess is no, he could slime his way out of anything.

  30. Tom 7

    I'm getting impatient

    where is all this lovely info?

  31. TkH11

    @ac subjudice

    I'm not an expert on law, you're claiming the disclosure of emails would not be subjudice,

    but if that evidence makes any future defendants look guilty, and presumably it does make certain indviduals look guilty, then this compromises the trial: given the level of interest in this case, the defendants would be able to legitimately argue that no jury can ever give them a fair trial, that the jury members could have all been influenced by the media before the trial even commences.

    Whilst I'd love to see Lulsec spill the beans on that obnoxious woman (if there are any beans to spill), I'd like to see her banged up.

    I just can not believe for one second that so much universal phone hacking has gone one on such a massive scale with large financial payments being made and that none of the managers, chief execs knew about it. Of course they did.

  32. Intractable Potsherd

    But, TkH11 ...

    ... you have shown that there is no way of ensuring that "... the defendants would be able to legitimately argue that no jury can ever give them a fair trial, that the jury members could have all been influenced by the media before the trial even commences ..." because there will be a lot of people who would " ... like to see [them] banged up". So many people "... can not believe for one second that so much universal phone hacking has gone one on such a massive scale with large financial payments being made and that none of the managers, chief execs knew about it." Unless and until a trial happens, the attitude of "Of course they did" means that the case is being prejudged, and there will be no way to find members of a jury that reliably can be found to be neutral.

    This is not the first time that a high-profile case has come up, and in which members of the jury could not possibly have failed to have some opinion beforehand. So far, there have been no successful appeals based on this argument, though it would just keep adding hypocrisy to the thing if the NI lot tried to affect a decision (either to prosecute, or to appeal a conviction) on this basis, given that they have whipped up so much frenzy about some other cases that it has been impossible to get a fair trial!

  33. Huey
    Pint

    Damn

    63000 wait a minute that's the same number as my luggage combination.

  34. Shakje

    Does anyone actually think there will be serious legal repercussions for Murdoch?

    Especially after yesterday it seems unlikely. This release, at the very least (if it contains something incriminating), will disgust the public even more with the Murdoch franchise, hence a revenue hit.

  35. dephormation.org.uk
    Holmes

    Call the Police!

    "Oh no, we've been hacked by crooks!"

    "Call the Police! Call the Police!"

    "Wait a moment. On second thoughts...?"

  36. Rex Alfie Lee
    Mushroom

    Hope they go broke over this...

    Big Brother's corruption incorporates News Limited as well as various other news sites. Perhaps reasonable journos can find a source outside these major manipulators to fund them rather than an organisation that fabricates stories out of nothing & hides the truth when it exists...

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