UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw's email account hacked.

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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:33 pm

Details here.

Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:36 pm

Quote:

The Blackburn MP, who set up the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit to crack down on internet hackers

Way to go Jack, resounding sucess.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Classic

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

Someone clicked on a phishing site. Very Happy

It is good to know that our national security is (and was) in such safe hands.

I see it was a Hotmail account. I'm sure he knows and is happy with these extracts from Microsoft's privacy statement:

Microsoft wrote:

Personal information collected on Microsoft sites and services may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Microsoft or its affiliates, subsidiaries or service providers maintain facilities....
We may access or disclose information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the services; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers or the public.

So the safest Jack Straw's emails can be said to be, is that they are protected by US law, and their secrecy depends on US need-to-know. That's OK then.

I'm sure there's nothing very secret in there. He only used the account for constituency affairs. It would only be human of course to occasionally make a lapse in judgement and send mail on the account he had access to at the time. But being a cabinet minister gives super-human powers, so there is probably nothing to worry about. Anyway, the guy in Nigeria (or wherever) probably didn't bother to read all of the mail when he had access to the box.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

I will give Jack Straw kudos for one thing though. He got 419 out on the major news channels in prime time. I just listened to it on the Today program (8:40am, and it will be on iPlayer.) It wasn't fantastic coverage, but it should prevent a few people sending money to stranded friends and relatives.

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:03 am

^^^
Factually incorrect too. Straw's computer wasn't hacked. One of his staff fell for a phishing scam. I didn't think much of the "expert" thy interviewed either.

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:45 am

Lots of red faces over this, I think Smile

I started another thread on this, but was beaten by 2 minutes.
Next time I won't waste time checking for keywords like "Jack Straw" Smile

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:17 am

And they want me to carry an ID card?
Over my dead body. As things stand, I will never carry one and would rather go to jail (that said, it wouldn't be long before someone got hold of my criminal record details).

How many times is the government going to "lose" computer information?

I'm not making a political statement here - I think any party would be just as pisspoor at security. But until the authorities can safeguard our information, anything they put online can be accessed by others.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

No wonder my post got zapped on the chat forum ... I only looked there Embarassed

Pity politicians don't live in the real world with the rest of us (well some of us anyway).

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:29 am

The BBC Radio 4 website bills this interview with the 'expert' as:

'Cyber-crime specialist Professor David Wall, of Leeds University, discusses how an email account could be accessed'.

Here's the interview:

Clicky

The part of the interview about how they 'hacked into his computer' is a complete joke.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

Professor Wall seems to know about as much in that interview as any man they might have grabbed off the street. Yet I see from his CV that his paper 'Cyberscams: bulk deceptions on the internet' (sic) was awarded the Home Office Innovative Research Award in 2001/2.

Maybe that's what is wrong with the LEO and governmental response to 419: they don't have a clue.

The PM program wheeled in a baiter, who was much more lucid and informed, albeit not quite as much as one of ours would have been. Wink

I wonder if scamwarners should offer a talking head to the news media?

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:09 pm

Would you believe it ?

Yes, of course. Laughing

Politicians are comedians.

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:49 pm

I've only just got back to my computer since hearing the pitiful performance of the 'expert' on the Today program.

And I usually have a lot of time for John Humphries but his "what sort of idiot would fall for this, surely you just delete them" approach was a bit superior.

I was seething by the time I got to work.

Then I had my morning cuppa and everything was all right.

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 5:46 pm

Mr Tambourine Man wrote:

^^^Factually incorrect too.

You mean our 'newspapers' print bullshit sometimes? Surely some mistake. This is the Telegraph, they wouldn't bend the truth for their own political agenda, would they?

On the other hand, if our politicians of any colour really were using Hotmail accounts for sensitive stuff, they'd need their asses kicked.

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