More NOTW hacking bullshit

[Faust]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16283935

I don't know an awful lot about this James Hipwell guy, but the casual nature of the hacking he describes has me dumbfounded. I have yet to come across any kind of working phone hacking stuff online, what they are describing is the police forensic tool used on phones in investigations. The only way journalists without any tech knowledge could have operated easily with this kind of stuff means that not only were they in bed with the providers but would have had to have been given police training in how to use their software.

Or maybe he's just saying this for sensationalism. Naming the Sainted Mccann's is a dangerous move. It will more then turn people from mild apathetic anger into a pitchfork mob if they confirm the mccanns phone was hacked.

[Scribbly]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16283935

I don't know an awful lot about this James Hipwell guy, but the casual nature of the hacking he describes has me dumbfounded. I have yet to come across any kind of working phone hacking stuff online, what they are describing is the police forensic tool used on phones in investigations. The only way journalists without any tech knowledge could have operated easily with this kind of stuff means that not only were they in bed with the providers but would have had to have been given police training in how to use their software.

Or maybe he's just saying this for sensationalism. Naming the Sainted Mccann's is a dangerous move. It will more then turn people from mild apathetic anger into a pitchfork mob if they confirm the mccanns phone was hacked.

I have to be honest, I've been amazed at how surprised everyone involved in this seems to be.

When I did my degree, I took several modules on politics & the media and phone hacking (along with fraud, identity theft, and use of private detectives) were mentioned as tools widely accepted to be used by the media in order to obtain information. Admittedly, it wasn't widely acknowledged, but it was an 'open secret', and I'm sure I saw at least two documentaries in which the 'dark arts' were mentioned. I'd half convinced myself that I must be misremembering.

I would not be surprised if this is entirely accurate, in short, and I'm surprised it hasn't come out sooner.

[Cain]

This has been threatening to break out for a while.

The Mirror and London Times are both implicated, and there have been rumblings along those lines for quite some time.  The McCanns, as you say, will no doubt get the pitchfork mob ready to roll into action.  I wouldn't be surprised if every single celebrity-obsessed daily tabloid were systematically involved in phone hacking.

That is new though, the journalists themselves discussing the methods is definitely new, and quite different from what we understood of the process of hacking at News of the World.  There, the private investigators were left to do the dirty work and hand over the source material to the writers.  But at the Mirror, if I'm reading him right, it looks like they were doing it themselves.

The question of where they got their expertise is a very important one, you're right.  There was always the suggestion that people working for the mobile phone business may be implicated, even in the News of the World investigations, but now, finding out if that is the case or not seems rather important.

There has also been suggestions that the News of the World or people employed by them might know something about the death of Daniel Morgan, a private detective who was murdered in 1987, after it transpired he had some very interesting information concerning the flow of drugs and guns between south-east England and Northern Ireland.  

[Faust]

There has also been suggestions that the News of the World or people employed by them might know something about the death of Daniel Morgan, a private detective who was murdered in 1987, after it transpired he had some very interesting information concerning the flow of drugs and guns between south-east England and Northern Ireland.  

Oh no. I knew about the afgan/IRA link for drugs into NI, But the year in question was Thatcher eara. Which was when the IRA had the most british agents in it. Any idea what body was on the delivering end in south east England?