back to article News Corp outfoxed by IT intruders for years

The miscreants who infiltrated News Corporation's corporate IT network spent two years in the media monolith's system before being detected early last year. The super-corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, UK publications including The Sunday Times, and a broad array of other entities around the world, first …

  1. Evil Auditor Silver badge
    Devil

    And I thought it's been rather evident that some form of intruder has manipulated their "news" for many years now.

    1. Steve Kerr

      I think they're called "reporters" in the loosest sense of the term

      1. wolfetone Silver badge
        Coat

        "I'm a journalist who writes for News Corp."

        "You can be one or the other, you can't be both."

        1. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
          Coat

          I wondered why the spelling had improved.

    2. The Man Who Fell To Earth Silver badge
      Black Helicopters

      Maybe they broke in to learn

      Rummaging around an organization famous for successfully promoting false news for ratings, as we are finding out was the official policy at News Corp, would be of great value for the CCP.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/02/27/rupert-murdoch-testimony-fox-dominion/

      https://news.yahoo.com/murdoch-testified-fox-commentators-endorsed-222614792.html

    3. Esoteric Eric

      As apposed to the tax avoiding guardian?

      If you think your lefty papers are any different, you're a clown as much as the readers of New Corp

  2. wolfetone Silver badge
    Pint

    Someone has out smarted the Murdoch empire?

    My heart bleeds.

    1. teknopaul
      Devil

      Introducing fake fake news

      "aim of gathering intelligence" at News Corp?

      Pull the other one.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Introducing fake fake news

        It was NASA. They were searching for signs of intelligence. Failed so far on Mars to decided to up their game by shooting for the impossible :-)

  3. R Soul Silver badge

    Where were MTG's gazpacho police? They would have sorted out those intruders.

  4. IGotOut Silver badge

    China gathering intelligence...

    ...from News Corp?

    No wonder they needed 2+ years!

  5. MJI Silver badge

    Joke company

    What would they find out? Some celebrity crap?

    Were they after Sun page 3s?

    I hate NI so have no sympathy.

  6. WanderingHaggis

    What was their goal?

    Piggy back on NI's hacking?

  7. A Non e-mouse Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    The company who hacked celebreties get hacked themselves.

    Schadenfreude.

  8. DJO Silver badge

    It's a good thing crooks are dumb

    ...News Corp is giving affected workers free identity protection and credit monitoring for two years...

    So happy no crook is smart enough to sit on the data for a couple of years. /s

    They should either pay to have all the significant information changed, not sure even if it's possible to change US SSN and reissue driving licences, but bank accounts and insurance can be changed but why should the onus be on the victim? - that should be down to the company who leaked the data.

    Alternatively they should provide credit protection for the rest of the victims life.

    1. Eclectic Man Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: It's a good thing crooks are dumb

      DJO: "So happy no crook is smart enough to sit on the data for a couple of years. /s"

      Well, the UK ones are that patient. Two years ago there were attempts to steal my pension funds and savings (they got away with just shy of £100k, but I was re-imbursed by the organisations who were conned)*. I registered with CIFAS (which lasts fore two whole years). Two years later and hey presto! they are back trying to get campanile to say how much they (I) would get if my pension were taken as a cash lump sum (only an idiot or someone terminally ill would want to pay 45% tax on their pension fund)./. SO yes I've registered with CIFAS again, with a calendar reminder for me to reapply in two years time.

      *Technically, as I have 'got my money back', I am not the victim of a crime, but the stress, and the ongoing worry of my post being stolen is giving me nightmares and sleepless nights, so I bloody well feel like a victim of crime. And nobody, actually nobody is seriously trying to catch these people.

      1. Cav Bronze badge

        Re: It's a good thing crooks are dumb

        "And nobody, actually nobody is seriously trying to catch these people."

        I had sympathy up to this last sentence. That is simply wrong.

        1. Eclectic Man Silver badge
          Meh

          Re: It's a good thing crooks are dumb

          @ Cav

          It is morally 'wrong', but factually correct. The police are only after people who steal millions through fraud, rather than mere thousands. HMRC is hardly interested in you if you omit to pay £3.50 in tax, but 'forget' about an investment worth £27million (yes, former chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi*, I am looking at you) and they throw the book** at you. Of course, if you are a satirical comedian, you are in deep ordure (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18531008).

          I've never quite got the hang of 'life', you can tell, can't you?

          *https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/03/nadhim-zahawi-it-was-the-paltry-size-of-his-tax-bill-that-should-shock-us

          **But it is a nice padded Capital Gains tax book, not a nasty hard Income Tax book with a high interest rate attached. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-hmrc-interest-rates-for-late-and-early-payments/rates-and-allowances-hmrc-interest-rates)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: It's a good thing crooks are dumb

            Thanks for the reminder about Jimmy Carr from 2012. I reckon then-Prime Minister David Cameron's remark about Carr's use of the scheme as "morally wrong" has aged rather well, considering Cameron's involvement in the Panama Papers, don't you? Like a fine cheese.

            1. Eclectic Man Silver badge
              Joke

              Re: It's a good thing crooks are dumb

              AC: "David Cameron's remark about Carr's use of the scheme as "morally wrong" has aged rather well .... Like a fine cheese."

              Indeed, if only at the time David Cameron had known someone with influence and authority *concerning tax legislation, maybe he could have done something about these tax 'loopholes', but if you re the sort of cad who reveals another chap's tax details while inheriting £2million tax free our your father** then obviously you cannot do anything at all.

              Cheese? More 'Stinking Bishop' than 'Doux de Montagne.'

              *Or had just had some backbone***, either would do.

              **(perfectly above board, it was in an offshore account in a 'tax haven', for goodness sake there is NOTHING against the rules in this, at all, nothing to see here, move along, move along there)

              *** Terry Pratchett quotation: "There is nothing like a million years of evolving to give a species moral fibre, and, in some cases, backbone."

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's a good thing crooks are dumb

      News Corp is giving affected workers free identity protection

      I thought they already did that for all the staff who can't live with the shame of working for Faux News.

  9. Eclectic Man Silver badge
    Happy

    "The truth shall make ye fret"

    Terry Pratchett, quotation from a Discworld novel about newspapers, journalism and how the dwarves discovered how to turn lead into gold*.

    BTW, there is a new collection of stories Sir Terry wrote under the name 'Patrick Kearns' and published in newspapers (not News International ones, I suspect) before he got famous, due to be published in the UK on 5th October this year.

    *Well, as I'm a bit stuck on Proust at the moment, I feel a bit of literary jollity is in order, pardon me while I re-read that one, again.

    1. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

      Re: "The truth shall make ye fret"

      Oh I really hope El Reg makes a big splash about Sir Pt's stuff when it comes out! Upvoted for the alert.

    2. John H Woods Silver badge

      Re: stuck on Proust

      You are in search of lost time? Took me a year.

      1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

        Re: stuck on Proust

        I am attempting to re-read the final volume (Finding Time Again)* as I want to find the description of the Vinteulle Sonata final movement where everything comes together, and I stupidly did not note the page number on first reading. frankly, although I found the book amazing, I feel I could have done without all of the sex and violence, but then Marcel was French. First time around it took me 8 months.

        *Panguin, English Translation, ISBN 978-0-141-18036-6.

        1. Anthropornis

          Re: stuck on Proust

          I've made several attempts, but keep taking a break after getting lost in multi-page paragraphs.

          Could you summarize Proust for me, please ? :jester:

          1. Eclectic Man Silver badge
            Pint

            Re: stuck on Proust

            Anthropornis: "Could you summarize Proust for me, please ? :jester:"

            <Clears throat>

            Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

            Proust's masterpiece, 'In Search of Lost Time' is a philosophical meditation on the nature of ageing, time passing, memory and social hierarchy. In the first book, 'The Way by Swanns' the characters are relatively youthful. The narrator, Marcel, recounts in extreme detail events, parties and his response and understanding of people and events and introduces, in particular (although briefly) two recurring themes, his reaction to the play Phaedra (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaedra_(Seneca)), particularly the leading actress's portrayal of the (anti-)heroine, and the 'Vinteuille Sonata' a mythical piece of music that is basically M. Vinteuille's 'one hit wonder'. Marcel is not inspired by either, describing Phaedra as fairly wooden.

            Throughout the series of books we see characters age, some die, we again are treated to detailed descriptions of parties and soirees, Marcel's ailments, a quite amusing description of his being drunk on a train. There are more than hints about the infidelities of the upper classes, and their snobbery. (One character is the head of 'the Jockey Club', a group of men who go to the theatre to see the chorus girls, often with their wives, who know exactly what is going on.) Marcel's understanding of the play Phaedra matures over time, even though the description of the particular scene is mostly the same, he starts to 'get it'. There are little vignettes: Marcel has an article published in a Paris newspaper, and reacts exactly like I do when I have a letter published. He checks that it has his name, he reads it, and re-reads it, considers how it has been sub-edited, reads it again, is elated, and (I don't do this) buys copies to give to his friends (I just 'happen to mention' in a text message that I am again in print). There is considerable mention of the Dreyfus Affair and how supporters and opponents of Dreyfus change as his innocence is discovered, homosexuality (mostly male but some female), and enormous amounts of gossip, and descriptions of how the ejected French upperclass (no longer in power, but still called Duke, Duchess, Princess, Queen etc.) behave as if they still matter. "When it rains, the rich ride in carriages, the bourgeois have their umbrellas, and the poor ... get wet."

            In the final volume, 'Finding Time Again', towards the end and after 'the Great War', Marcel is much more emotionally mature, the aristocrats whose soirees were the top social gatherings in the 1900's are now overtaken by more fashionable and younger hostesses, who get the best guests. The major characters have mellowed or become more vile, some have died (war does that), and Phaedra is now, to Marcel, an exquisite masterpiece, rather than a bore. One of the uttermost snobs is now polite and friendly towards people whom he would never have even acknowledged let alone given the time of day, and the final movement of the Vinteuille Sonata is described (IIRC) as bringing together all the melodies, motifs, rhythms and themes of the previous movements in beautiful harmony. Marcel has found the subject for his book, and sets off to write.

            I gave up on several sentences of over 15 lines in each volume, just could not parse the commas into lists, sub-sub-clauses etc. But the language is astonishingly wonderful in places. Proust did write other books and articles, but 'In search of Lost Time' is the only one I have read. Proust wrote the first and last volumes at the same time, so the narrative arc of the middle four volumes was pre-determined. I should say that in most discussions of Proust's ISOLT there is no mention by scholars of Phaedra or the Vinteuille Sonata as having any significance whatsoever, but I think that gong to the effort of including them in each volume and slowly changing the narrator's attitude to them is a crucial commentary on the nature of emotional maturity over time. Feel free to discuss, but this is significantly off-topic for the Register.

            Oh, and like Sir Terry Pratchett after him, Proust basically did not bother with chapters. (And Pratchett has more and funnier jokes.)

            I hope this helps. (I need a pint. -------> )

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The irony

    All the while they were wanting on about how insecure Dominion Voting Systems was, and it turns out it's their own user authentication is the one with holes in it.

    1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

      Re: The irony

      Funny you should mention Dominion:

      "Rupert Murdoch’s admission that Fox News hosts knowingly ‘endorsed’ false claims of election fraud could help prove the network used ‘actual malice’"

      From: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/feb/28/rupert-murdoch-deposition-fox-news-dominion-voting-systems

      and "news of Murdoch’s deposition in the $1.6bn Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News Networks and its parent company Fox Corp dropped like a bomb. Not only did he admit that he knew that Fox News hosts spread lies about the 2020 presidential election being stolen from Donald Trump, but he confessed that he had allowed them to keep on doing so on air to millions of viewers."

      Lost. For. Words.

      1. phuzz Silver badge

        Re: The irony

        It's not news that they were doing that, they literally broadcast themselves doing it. It's news that they've had to admit to doing it in court.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    2 years

    2 years of access and they still didn't do as much damage as Fox does every day.

  12. heyrick Silver badge

    were nation-state players linked to China with the aim of gathering intelligence

    Oh come on. There's nothing that even remotely resembles intelligence at that place.

  13. Ryan D
    Joke

    Maybe, just maybe….

    They just hated the paywalls ?

    And now I’m off to my corner.

  14. Omnipresent Bronze badge

    Putin

    Keeping an eye on his lapdog.

  15. An_Old_Dog Silver badge

    Inobvious Intrusions

    Well, if it had been me in their systems, I would have changed their masthead to read, "Pox News".

    Whether or not they would have noticed is up for debate.

  16. ecofeco Silver badge

    Epic poetic justice

    See title.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Were they looking for Roger Ailes’ porn collection?

    And only found Tucker’s ?

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