A real life shadowrun event, hacked emails reveal global warming hoax Options

[Weaver95]

read it for yourself

short version - someone hacked into the servers for Climate Research Center (which is a huge name in coordinating global warming research) and scarfed up a LOT of their confidential data. From what it's looking like, the folks at the CRC have been cooking the books when it comes to data analysis. suppressing opposing viewpoints, coordinating with various politicians, feeding false data to government agencies and planning committees. you name it.

this is about as 'shadowrun' as you can get.

Reason for edit: Added RL tag

[remmus]

read it for yourself

short version - someone hacked into the servers for Climate Research Center (which is a huge name in coordinating global warming research) and scarfed up a LOT of their confidential data. From what it's looking like, the folks at the CRC have been cooking the books when it comes to data analysis. suppressing opposing viewpoints, coordinating with various politicians, feeding false data to government agencies and planning committees. you name it.

this is about as 'shadowrun' as you can get.

first i dive face first into Assassins Creed 2 conspiracy stuff and then I read a real life one...lifes strange.

[Weaver95]

first i dive face first into Assassins Creed 2 conspiracy stuff and then I read a real life one...lifes strange.

interesting stuff, isn't it?

[remmus]

interesting stuff, isn't it?

true tho one must be careful, as mention allot of the ideas of conspiracy could just be the result of manipulation and selective information, even truth seeker manipulate data sometimes.

[Weaver95]

true tho one must be careful, as mention allot of the ideas of conspiracy could just be the result of manipulation and selective information, even truth seeker manipulate data sometimes.

on a personal note, I look forward to reading that archive once it hits wikileaks or cryptome...but I posted the story here as an example of real world shadowrunner style activities.

[Weaver95]

For the curious

the name of the file in question is Hadley CRU FOI2009 zip and it's on bittorrent.

[Semerkhet]

read it for yourself

short version - someone hacked into the servers for Climate Research Center (which is a huge name in coordinating global warming research) and scarfed up a LOT of their confidential data. From what it's looking like, the folks at the CRC have been cooking the books when it comes to data analysis. suppressing opposing viewpoints, coordinating with various politicians, feeding false data to government agencies and planning committees. you name it.

this is about as 'shadowrun' as you can get.

Except that it isn't really paydata. The hacker releases a "random" selection of the emails and then the blogosphere goes nuts taking statements out of context. And by "random" I'm sure it really means carefully selected to fit the hacker's political agenda.

I work in climate research and I can tell you without a doubt that climate change is real and that human activity plays a part. That much is certain, but the devil is in the details. There is a lot we don't understand about climate systems and that means we don't know for sure how much of the ongoing climate change is the result of natural cycles and how much is human-caused. Don't let the fact that we don't know for sure convince you that we don't know anything.

[sqir666]

*snipped party line*

Okay, first off I'm not trying to start a flame war at all. So please don't think that I'm trying to flame anyone or anything here.


Now to the main point, that's the thing. We all seem to know about the climate right now is A) it's getting warmer for some reason, B) We're putting a lot of strange chemicals in the atmosphere.


Yet, the strange thing is we don't know if both things are directly related or not. Some scientists want to say that they are, yet have little proof that effect is causing effect A.

[Weaver95]

Except that it isn't really paydata. The hacker releases a "random" selection of the emails and then the blogosphere goes nuts taking statements out of context. And by "random" I'm sure it really means carefully selected to fit the hacker's political agenda.

I work in climate research and I can tell you without a doubt that climate change is real and that human activity plays a part. That much is certain, but the devil is in the details. There is a lot we don't understand about climate systems and that means we don't know for sure how much of the ongoing climate change is the result of natural cycles and how much is human-caused. Don't let the fact that we don't know for sure convince you that we don't know anything.

first off - I strongly suggest that if you want to discuss this data dump, you go get a copy for yourself. Secondly - I didn't post this story to discus global warming, I posted it as an example of a 'real life' shadowrun style operation.

Keep in mind my second point. Then stop, walk away from the computer, take a DEEEEEEEP breath, and come back to your computer and remember: I posted this as an example of a 'real life' shadowrun style operation. nothing more, nothing less.

[sqir666]

Well, ok so I need to apologize to about that tangent.

Anyways, as to whomever did this hack, kudos to them for bringing a bit of Shadowrun into real life.

As a side note, I witnessed (partially) a DEA raid happening in my neighborhood. For some reason, I was rooting for the criminals.

[remmus]

I was rooting for the criminals.

most likely becuase you hoped to see a orc with a neon green mowhawk run down the street.

[sqir666]

most likely becuase you hoped to see a orc with a neon green mowhawk run down the street.

With a Mono-chainsaw?

You're damn straight!

[Marwynn]

So how much's the pay on tracking this guy down? Otherwise, who cares? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

[Semerkhet]

first off - I strongly suggest that if you want to discuss this data dump, you go get a copy for yourself. Secondly - I didn't post this story to discus global warming, I posted it as an example of a 'real life' shadowrun style operation.

Keep in mind my second point. Then stop, walk away from the computer, take a DEEEEEEEP breath, and come back to your computer and remember: I posted this as an example of a 'real life' shadowrun style operation. nothing more, nothing less.

You may not have intended to start a conversation about global climate change, but you had to know the risk. Your "short version" was incredibly biased and made it sound like the article was full of astounding revelations, but the article is actually quite neutral and reveals no stunning chicanery on the part of the scientists in question. Science is messy and not all researchers are ethical. This is not news and it's not pay-data. Now if the hacker was hired by an energy company with an interest in discrediting climate science, then you've got something like a shadowrun. If that's the case, I hope they didn't pay the hacker too much.

@sqir666: I am offended by your "appeal to motive" tactic in using the *snipped party line* comment and take it as a personal attack on myself by characterizing me as a shill for some organization. The "strange chemicals" comment shows me that you don't know what you're talking about, so you don't have a shred of credibility when you complain about scientists having "little proof" to back up their claims.

[Jericho Alar]

Climate change has been predicted at varying levels for the last 30 years; now that some predicted effects are starting to happen, the common thread is that Climatologists haven't been overblowing their predictions - they've been too conservative.

Regardless of what is causing it, climate change is very real. (It doesn't help that a lot of the confusion is from people who can't distinguish weather from climate.)

Even then skeptics should support action on climate change because of game theory: if we react and it turns out not to be true here's what we get: Less Pollution, New Infrastructure, a slight downturn in economies (temporarily), Energy Independence, More Responsible use of Resources, etc.

If we don't react and it turns out to be true we have a disaster scenario that kicks off a new dark age.


Given the possible outcomes for guessing wrong it shouldn't really matter to anyone whether or not climate change is caused by humanity or not from a policy standpoint.

[edit]one response I found particularly illuminating: Evidently due to this e-mail conspiracy, Arctic sea ice is at historically low levels, Australia is on fire, the northern United Kingdom is underwater, and the world’s glaciers are disappearing. Oh yeah, and it’s the hottest decade in history.[/edit]

[Method]

It amazes me how people talk in absolutes about climate change like there are inarguable truths to this "science". Good science encourages skepticism.

[Ancient History]

Okay, shadowkids, unless this is a discussion on whether or not climate change is real in Shadowrun (hint: me writer, me say yes), then this is not the time or place to argue it.

[Method]

Well, since SR belongs to AH now, I guess that ends that debate. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

I've decided in my game Al Gore was cryogenically frozen so that he could be brought back and made into a cyberzombie sometime around 2068 and now travels the world fighting the evils of corporate environmental greed.

[Neraph]

Okay, first off I'm not trying to start a flame war at all. So please don't think that I'm trying to flame anyone or anything here.


Now to the main point, that's the thing. We all seem to know about the climate right now is A) it's getting warmer for some reason, B) We're putting a lot of strange chemicals in the atmosphere.


Yet, the strange thing is we don't know if both things are directly related or not. Some scientists want to say that they are, yet have little proof that effect is causing effect A.

*suppresses a giggle* I'm sorry. You know the #1 greenhouse gas is oxygen right? So start breathing more of this greenhouse gas immediately to convert it to CO(2) and cut down more trees to halt production.

EDIT: Just read AH's post, so I must add: ...IN SHADOWRUN!

[Weaver95]

You may not have intended to start a conversation about global climate change, but you had to know the risk. Your "short version" was incredibly biased and made it sound like the article was full of astounding revelations, but the article is actually quite neutral and reveals no stunning chicanery on the part of the scientists in question.

Actually, i've started reading through the email archive in the download. yeah...some of those guys were definitely fudging things when it came to telling the government people what to do on policy decisions. they might not have lied...exactly...but they certainly implied results they had not yet proven.

[Jack Kain]

Of course these being hacked emails they could all be forgeries.

[Weaver95]

Of course these being hacked emails they could all be forgeries.

I thought about that, so I checked the email headings. from what I could tell, the routing data looks legit. there's also a LOT of info in the emails as well, things like cell phone numbers, public contact information, private office line numbers, stuff like that.

If it's a hoax, it's the most well designed hoax i've ever seen.

[Heath Robinson]

This is exactly why, for the most part, any data dumps from Technomancers don't change reality. So, an anonymous "hacker" dumps a load of data into the public domain from a classified host? How do we know he isn't lying about where they got it? If they have enough knowledge of the subject to explain where the paydata gets corroborated from side-agnostic sources, then they know enough to produce reasonable-looking fake data that gets corroborated with those sources.

Furthermore, the consensus approach (where someone confirms that your working is correct) cannot work because identity is mutable on computer networks. Especially for Shadowrunners, who often have multiple "real" IDs. So how do you confirm the validity of a data dump? You can't without having resources that can confirm the data, sources that you can trust. When this relates to information stolen from the opposing side that doesn't concern to any kind of independantly verifiable phenomena (like, for example, communication dumps, or payrolls), this amounts to having people in place that could have stolen the information anyway. Basically, anything coming out of a Technomancer's head from a trip to the Resonance Realms is highly suspect.

It all falls down to HumInt, which is asset intensive. I suspect that the only way you're going to see Johnsons (who do this for a living) trusting data about internal activities that is to be stolen from a corp is if the Johnson controls the system and/or programs that steal it. In short, the datasteal missions are pretty difficult to reasonably run in a way which is not "put this Gubbin in that machine, then get the hell out of dodge".


Now, this is different to recovering data that has been lost by recourse to Matrix Juju. That's totally doable, as the people that created the data in the first place can check that for validity in less than half the time it takes for them to remake the information.

[Semerkhet]

I thought about that, so I checked the email headings. from what I could tell, the routing data looks legit. there's also a LOT of info in the emails as well, things like cell phone numbers, public contact information, private office line numbers, stuff like that.

If it's a hoax, it's the most well designed hoax i've ever seen.

Also trying to tie into SR, just because the headers and other ancillary information look authentic doesn't mean that the content of the messages haven't been subtly altered here and there. A few edits in the right places and voila! instant scandal. This is especially true given the assumed (as explained in Unwired) sophistication of hackers and hacking software in 2072 vis-à-vis encryption.

[Fuchs]

I am astonished that, given the numerous examples of corps falsifying evidence, suppressing studies, paying lobbyists etc. in the tobacco industry, and the examples of movie studios writing false reviews for their products, that people really trust a "hacker" here.