Fox Hacks Fark 188
circletimessquare writes "Valleywag.com is reporting on a case of a hacker not covering his tracks. It seems that, via a targeted email, an admin at Fark.com downloaded a trojan, which was used to steal passwords for Fark servers. Notably, these activities were traced to an IP address in Memphis Tennessee, and to a Fox News new-media reporter. As to the veracity of the story, that is bolstered by the fact that the story was greenlit for the front page of Fark. Motive? That could range from Fark being a rumored Fox takeover target, to stealing source code for a competing Fox social networking site. If the story is true, laws have been broken, but perhaps not by the Fox News reporter: it's possible his computer was hacked as well. Whatever the truth, it's a very entertaining read, as it pushes a number of hot buttons."
WHBQ Fox13 != Fox News (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Fox News Reporter == Journalist? (Score:5, Informative)
Well, actually, even my own biased opinion wouldn't label most Fox employees as 'not journalists' - but everytime I consider the Fox news network as a whole, I just can't think of it as a news network.
This was not a reporter from the cable Fox News Channel, but a news anchor from a local Fox TV station. You know, the same one that shows Family Guy and The Simpsons. That is not FNC, which shows Bill O'reilly and Geraldo.
Re:Hah. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Fox News Reporter == Journalist? (Score:5, Informative)
Where are all you guys getting "news anchor" from? (I'm not even going to ask where the submitter and editor hallucinated "reporter" from.) The article describes him as the "new media manager" -- i.e. the head of their website and related activities.
The elaborate fantasies in the link still seem unlikely, but this is a relatively tech-savvy guy, not the sportscaster.
Re:That's great and all but... (Score:5, Informative)
dude: WHBQ Fox13 = News Corp (Score:5, Informative)
it's not just an affiliate, it's not just getting house, 24, and the simpsons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHBQ-TV [wikipedia.org]
it's owned by rupert murdoch. if you hadn't noticed, murdoch has a pretty solid track record of seeding his media acquisitions with his particular conservative point of view
however, it is certainly disingenuous of you to think that distancing fox affiliates from each other is supposed to instill innoculation for fox (national) from implication for this hack
no: the proper way for you to innoculate fox from the implications of any wrongdoing here is to point out, compellingly and reasonably, that this is probably the actions of a lone idiot, not fox news (local) or fox news (national)
IF this guy is guilty (and he could be hacked and framed himself), i think it is certain the guy is just a lone idiot. the question being: why would fox hack fark? there's no valid reason for them to do that. but there is a valid reason for a new media reporter trying to build a social networking site to do that
having said that (that the hacking in question here most definitely is not representative of fox news), it is intellectually dishonest of you to draw distance between a local fox station and the national one in this case as a defensive posture. they are all owned by rupert murdoch. maybe you just didn't know, but it sounds like you're spinning
Re:Why the hell hack fark (Score:3, Informative)