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Published in News

Conficker cock-up flummoxes 60 minutes

by on02 April 2009

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Top news team caught with pants down


Top US news
show "60 Minutes" was well and truly caught with its pants down over its hysterical coverage of the Conficker worm over the weekend.

The top line US news show thought it was onto a winner predicting doom and destruction as the worm was timed to turn on April 1st. The broadcast played up the public safety hazard, clever thieves, and showed some suitable villains in a group of Russian teens bent on stealing your identity and your bank account number.

Images of the crooks were supplied by the Internet security company SecureWorks, which had an interest in people being nervous about the Conficker worm. However the problem was that on April 1st no one was smarting from the Conficker worm and to make matters worse the so called evil Russian hackers footage also proved bogus. The hackers filmed were neither Russian, hackers or any more evil than any kids their age.

The team from "60 Minutes" should have smelt a rat when they looked at the snaps. One of the youths in the picture is apparently wearing a jacket with Finland's coat of arms. Another youth in the picture is wearing a cap from a Finnish beer company. In short, they were Finns who had nothing to do with any Russian cyber criminals.

True, some Americans journalists have difficulty when it comes to finding other places in the world outside the former British colony. Indeed some would have difficulty finding their own bottoms or seeing their feet, however you would think that a leading US news team could spot the difference between an appropriately labelled Finn and a Russian hacker.
Last modified on 03 April 2009
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