News of the World journalists' computers were destroyed by 'putting them through a grinder and smash

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Daily Mail

The phone hacking scandal has taken a new twist after it was revealed computers used by News of the World journalists were destroyed by putting them 'through a grinder'.

They were 'taken out and smashed up' last autumn at a time when News International was being sued over the illegal activity at the now-defunct Sunday tabloid.

The computers were destroyed during a move from the paper's headquarters in east London to an office at the nearby Thomas More Square, a court has heard.

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Only the terminal belonging to show business reporter Dan Evans still exists, according to Jeremy Reed, the barrister representing a number of phone hacking victims.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063610/Leveson-inquiry-News-World-journalists-computers-grinder.html#ixzz1eBZ1VP2V



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063610/Leveson-inquiry-News-World-journalists-computers-grinder.html

[teddy51]

1. Why the hell didn't they just destroy the hard drives, and not the whole

computer? duh

[russspeakeasy]

2. it was easier than thinking.

[tsuki]

3. LOL. I am glad I left my drink in the other room.

[quakerboy]

4. Thats not the best bit buried in the story

"Meanwhile, it was revealed police have raided the home of a retired Special Branch detective who acted as a whistleblower on the failure of authorities to investigate media dirty tricks."

So the police authorities are still in coverup mode.


As to the computers: it does not indicate what year the HD's were ground up. Which seems like a strange way of doing it, I have never known a company to do that. But then I never worked anywhere that needed security beyond the basics.

[dipsydoodle]

5. If you read what you've posted it doesn't make sense

So the police authorities are still in coverup mode ?

If they've raided the home of a RETRIRED Special Branch detective what are they covering up ?

[quakerboy]

9. Read the exerpt, or the article.

They raided the home of a WHISTLEBLOWER (who happens to be a former detective) who is scheduled to testify(against the police) in a few days.

His testimony is in regards to the failures of the police in investigating News International misdeeds. According to him, they raided to try and get a preview of his testimony, presumably to have advance knowledge to mitigate its effects.

[dipsydoodle]

10. Apologies

I'd missed that.

[quakerboy]

14. No worries.

Ya had me worried for a brief instant, I kinda wondered there for a sec if I somehow transposed words or misunderstood what I had copy-pasted, but it still seemed to be saying the same thing on the second and third read.


In the mean time, I find it interesting that that was buried in a much less immediately concerning story, at least in my opinion. HD's getting shredded at some unknown past time is a concern that ought to be followed up on. But if they did it in 2007, it is unlikely related, where if they did this 2 months ago, that looks fishy. But the article does not seem to indicate at all. But police harrassing a whistleblower today, that is a story that needs shouted from the rooftops. Hopefully that one got its own story somewhere else

[boppers]

13. "I have never known a company to do that."

It's pretty much standard in higher security environments. "Erasing" a hard drive still leaves massive amounts of recoverable data. "Zeroing" a hard drive still leaves recoverable data. A multi-pass, random, re-write of every bit on the drive leaves much, much, less data available for recovery.... but to guarantee a near-zero percent recovery rate, grinding/shredding is best, preferably after a series of multi-pass random rewrites.

[quakerboy]

15. Fair enough

As I noted, I have never been at a company that had reason for concern, beyond the minimum, basically identity theft prevention for company, employees and clients. And writing over the disc's was more than enough for it to be unlikely for anyone to spend time digging out data that might be retrievable.

But as I thought about it, I do tend to take HD's apart when I am done with them sometimes. Granted thats more than half because I find the internal workings fascinating, and the disc's themselves are fun to play with. I am guessing the data recovery once I have been playing with the exposed discs for a few weeks is pretty close to nil as well. feel free to correct me.

I dont think of news as an high security environment, but then I think, confidential sources, security things that may be held back, and I can kinda see it.

I dunno. I wish the article had some indication of when exactly this happened. That seems like it would be more informative of whether this is actually a story or not than the details included.

[boppers]

17. Air exposure doesn't mean much.

"I am guessing the data recovery once I have been playing with the exposed discs for a few weeks is pretty close to nil as well. feel free to correct me."

You need to actually seriously disrupt the magnetic material. You might find this interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_force_microscope

In the same way that geologists can reconstruct a former mountain's shape after erosion, the magnetic material can be (to some extent) reconstructed to a pre-wiping shape. Most people don't have the time or resources to do this, intelligence agencies, OTOH, can read a platter that was zeroed, removed from its case, broken into 10 pieces, and left in the rain.

3000 pieces, finely ground up, are much harder to put in the right order, and read, and reconstruct.

[TheWraith]

6. Well, that's excessive if you're not participating in a massive criminal coverup. nt

[freshwest]

7. Isn't this a crime when an investigation is going on? Like the shredders running full speed at Enron

[dipsydoodle]

8. I'm not sure when it was they moved buildings

but as soon as the NOWT was put into administration technically the appointed Aministrator could've disposed of them as he pleased believe it or not. Also bear it mind that no charges have been brought yet.

[freshwest]

11. It still gives the appearance of a blatant attempt to suppress evidence to defeat the investigation.

Investigations are the first step in determining if there is a chargeable offense under suspicious circumstances of allegations by the public...

As far as I know as an American, not a Brit. I don't claim to know much, though.

[beac]

12. Oh yeah, THAT's not suspicious at all.

:eyes:

[benld74]

16. Just like Penn State getting open records laws NOT to affect Penn State, in 2008!!!

[Enthusiast]

18. Isn't that convenient?