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http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/07/15/twitter-hacking-spurs-ethics-debate-over-leaked-files/

Sent to you by pakurilecz via Google Reader: Twitter Hacking Spurs
Ethics Debate Over Leaked Files via WSJ.com: Digits by Marisa Taylor on
7/15/09

The hacking of Twitter CEO Evan Williams’s email account has sparked an
ethics debate after TechCrunch said that it would publish some of the
confidential documents that the hacker leaked.
Getty Images
Twitter’s Evan Williams, left, and Biz Stone

The brouhaha began when TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington blogged
that a French hacker calling himself “Hacker Croll” said he had broken
into Mr. Williams’s account as well as those of Mr. Williams’s wife and
two Twitter employees.

An English translation of a post on French blog Koren shows that the
hacker claims he gained access to Mr. Williams’s Gmail, PayPal, Amazon
and AT&T accounts, among others, and thus was able to find documents
containing Twitter employee food preferences, credit card numbers,
phone numbers and salaries.

Mr. Williams confirmed that he had indeed been hacked, writing, “It was
a good lesson for us that we are being targeted because we work for
Twitter. We have taken extra steps to increase our security, but we
know we can never be entirely comfortable with what we share via email.”

Mr. Arrington said TechCrunch would publish some of the documents it
received, including the pitch for a Twitter-related reality-TV show.

His post quickly drew both criticism and admiration, and on Twitter,
the hashtag “#Twittergate” has been trending in recent hours as users
debate it. “Bad juju, TechCrunch. Not ethical to post ANY hacked
confidential docs,” Cyndilou tweeted, while anand_raj wrote,
“Industrial espionage, cloud hacking, skating on the edge of
journalistic ethics: #twittergate has everything!’” “This is the dark
side of Silicon Valley,” wrote Schlomo.

Bloggers and tech experts are debating not only the ethics of airing
the files, but also how the hacker got the information. Was it Google’s
password-recovery system? “That would mean this isn’t a ‘cloud’ privacy
issue,” wrote GigaOm’s Om Malik. “Rather it would be an issue of
companies using poor authentication and password protocols to secure
their data.”

For Mr. Arrington’s part, in response to criticisms that he shouldn’t
have revealed the hacker’s findings, he says that whatever lands in his
inbox is fair game, unless he thinks it could damage an individual. He
also said that what he’s doing is no different than the Journal’s
publication of Yahoo’s so-called “Peanut Butter Manifesto” or Gawker’s
republication of illicitly obtained emails from Sarah Palin. He added:
“Hopefully this situation will encourage Google and Google users to
consider more robust data security policies in the future.”

UPDATE, 2:57 p.m. EST: Twitter co-founder Biz Stone posts the company’s
chronology of events, pointing out that the Twitter service wasn’t ever
compromised as a result of the email hacks.

Regarding the leaked files, “obviously, these docs are not polished or
ready for prime time and they’re certainly not revealing some big,
secret plan for taking over the world,” he adds. “Nevertheless, as they
were never meant for public communication, publishing these documents
publicly could jeopardize relationships with Twitter’s ongoing and
potential partners. We’re doing our best to reach out to these folks
and talk over any questions and concerns.”

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