back to article News of the World hacker named after court block lifted

A man accused of hacking into the computers of a former British Army intelligence officer on behalf of a News of the World editor has been named as Philip Campbell Smith, also a former British Army intelligence officer. Ex-agent Ian Hurst told the Levenson media-ethics inquiry that in July 2006 he received and inadvertently …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The army loves a turncoat

    He'll be a popular chap amongst his former army chums & comrades then...

    As popular as Henry Hill ordering a large Hawaiian with garlic bread from Paul Vario's Pizzeria.

  2. jake Silver badge

    He'll never work again. Anywhere.

    There is a reason I consider myself an ethical hacker ... I've been fired for refusing to do that kind of thing. What a twat.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: He'll never work again. Anywhere.

      I beg to differ. Let's be real.

      As long as the law continues not to be applied to newspapers and their staff he will work again and probably get more than his ex-army chums.

      For the time being all I see is lots of talking and very little application of the current legislation (this is one place where I agree with Hislop - no point to invent new laws if the current ones are not being applied properly).

      1. jake Silver badge

        @Voland's right hand

        Well, to be real, I wouldn't trust the twat.

        Would you?

        More to the point, would anyone with a brain trust anyone actually stupid enough to employ the twat?

        Just askin ...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Re: He'll never work again. Anywhere.

        Quite right, that was one of the few common sense moments in the whole stinking affair, the gravy train won't survive without the talking shops discussing new laws, regulations and the inevitable new QUANGO that will be set up to deal with them.

        Let's not forget those new laws and regulations will inevitably infringe on the freedom of the press to grub around and expose things that truly need exposing (I don't mean Tina, 22 from Essex)

        Sad thing is most of the public probably don't care, hell, if NoTW hadn't been caught out accessing the voicemail of dead children and their families they'd probably all still be in work because it seems 'slebs and politicians are fair game but when they stop 'finking about the children' the 'moral majority' get all upset.

        1. bobbles31

          Re: Re: Re: He'll never work again. Anywhere.

          As far as I can see the Notw team have all found new jobs this week at a new newspaper from the Murdoch gutter.

          1. Jay 2

            Re: Re: Re: Re: He'll never work again. Anywhere.

            Earlier this week I saw a tweet from a NoTW staffer who lost his job. He indicated that he and others were unemployed whilst NI generally has the same management bods and a new Sunday rag. I'm under the impression that said new rag will more-or-less be staffed by the existing Current Bun lot.

            The whole removal of NoTW to try and protect allegedly guilty moptop woman and Murdoch Jr was overkill. Many of the staff wheren't even on the paper when all the nasty stuff was happening. And now NI just go and rub salt in the wound by bringing back the same paper thinking that a name change will make any difference.

    2. Wang N Staines
      Happy

      Re: He'll never work again. Anywhere.

      I heard the Sun on Sunday is starting up, should be plenty of work for him sooon.

  3. Andus McCoatover
    Headmaster

    "certainly likely"

    Another one for my oxymoron list?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "certainly likely"

      Definitely probably.

      1. Andus McCoatover
        Windows

        the author...

        ...seems to have his feet firmly planted in mid-air.

    2. Arthur Dent
      Boffin

      Re: "certainly likely"

      @Andus McCoatover: so you have an oxymoron list on which you keep things which are clearly not oxymorons? Seems a bit bizarre to me!

  4. Greg J Preece

    Let me guess - Murdoch still claims to have had no idea this was going on. It's totally despicable, he'd never condone it, yadda yadda.

    1. Jonathan Richards 1

      And that may be true...

      It's definitely likely to be certainly possible that there was an ask-no-questions ethos pervading the NotW, allegedly. Suppose the Editor just welcomed revelations, and never asked how his journalists' private investigator's contact's pet geek managed to source the "facts"; or else he accepted, ummm, <i>assurances</i> at face value.

      1. Greg J Preece

        Re: And that may be true...

        "It's definitely likely to be certainly possible that there was an ask-no-questions ethos pervading the NotW, allegedly."

        My favourite sentence of the week. QOTW, El Reg?

    2. despairing citizen
      Big Brother

      Re: Murdoch still claims to have had no idea this was going on

      Unfortunately he was and is still a company director of a company that has directly profited from sustain and repeated criminal activity. (for example breaching CMA90)

      Ignorance is not a defence.

      So when are the prosecutions going to happen?

      When can we look forward to the legal entity of newcorp being prosecuted under the proceeds of crime act, for the amount they profitted from the criminal activity? (i.e. increased news of the screws/sun sales)

  5. Purlieu

    Zzzzz

    I'm shocked, SHOCKED, to find it was Andy Coulson

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not quite on topic but...

    webcams should come with -

    - internal lens covers that only open when you expressly tell them to, and are brightly coloured so it's easy to see when they're closed

    - activity LEDs to show the camera is on

    Meantime, the paranoid (like me) are best advised to resort to a strip of masking tape.

    Now, what to do about built in microphones?

    1. Jon Double Nice

      Re: Not quite on topic but...

      For the microphone, just listen to the BeeGees turned up to eleven all the time.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not quite on topic but...

      I find one of the sticky plastic 'dots' that laptop manufacturers use to hide screws are almost a perfect fit for laptop webcam lenses.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: manufacturers use to hide screws

        Ta for the suggestion - screws are among the things I'd also wish to hide.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Military intelligence? Now there's a contradiction in terms.

    > former British Army intelligence officer

    > received and inadvertently activated a trojan

    It appears training has slipped rather badly down at the intelligence corps....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      No: 'Light Infantry' is

      Article states merely 'Intelligence Officer', rather than specifically 'Intelligence Corps' or 'Green Slime'. I'd be interested to know if it was ex-Corps. Can we quantify please, El Reg?

  8. Nev

    Forget this part...

    It's bad, but illicit payments to foreign (for the US) officials (The Met) coupled with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Acts applied to NewsCorp honchos in the US has WAY more possible infotainment value!

  9. Alan Firminger

    The BBC showed this about a year ago. Hacked confronted hacker on camera.

  10. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Mushroom

    Why dick about with the underlings? Let's just go around to Murdoch's hotel right now drag him up the high court. He owned the shitty rag while all this crap was going, it's his responsibility!

    I can imagine a quite shakedown of his suit pockets would probably drop enough petty cash to cover the reparations to those who got screwed by this!

  11. This post has been deleted by its author

  12. despairing citizen
    Big Brother

    Doughnuts Anybody?

    Given the inteligence implications of all the people being hacked, one does wonder what the doughnut occupiers (GCHQ) and their colleagues at MI5 where doing...

    If anything....

    If somebody is hacking the voice mail and computers of cabinet ministers and intel (or ex-intel) staff, I really want GCHQ/MI5 to find it first, and quickly.

  13. Colin Wilson 2

    I don't know why anyone is surprised by all this newspapaer scandal stuff. The only thing that surprises me about it is that it's confined to the NOTW.

    I mean, we all know what being a newspaper scribe is like. It's black and white. Night time. Raining. The office echos with the clatter of Remington typewriters. Everyone smokes. Drinks bourbon. You have contacts. Big Shots. Hoods. Wise Guys. Snitches and Floozies. You rummage through the trash. Tap wires. Apply some heat. Anything, anything to get the scoop.

    Three rounds of ammunition? Yeah - and the rest!

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    so a fuckwit from army

    'intelligence' has sensitive info

    in emails? I don't email my

    date of birth never mind

    details of people who might

    be assassinated.

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