Running a global conspiracy is a lot harder in these days of electronic reproduction. You are always just one sniffer or social-engineering hack away from global notoriety...
RXC:
Extremely hacked and incredibly dense: Stratfor Global and Heartland Institute learn the hard way what happens when the emails describing your plans for world domination get hacked: Here's some advice to intelligence agencies and think tanks worldwide: Next time you decide to have a little chat about your plans for world domination, skip the email, find a cozy little conference room somewhere, and demand the Cone of Silence.... WikiLeaks began publishing 5 million email messages stolen from Stratfor Global, the shadow spook organization that operates without government oversight at the behest of private corporations and occasionally Uncle Sam…. Tell other organizations how to keep their emails from being published on WikiLeaks, lest they turn into a public punch line. Let us know how that works out for you. A few hours after the emails went public, Friedman resigned as CEO....
Example two concerns Heartland, a Chicago-based "think tank" that routinely publishes research challenging the concept of global warming and the dangers of secondhand smoke. Thanks to some leaked emails, the world now knows that Heartland is funded by -- wait for it -- the oil and tobacco industries. Granted, this isn't exactly a surprising revelation, nor was Heartland hacked, exactly -- more like it was played for a fool. Climatologist Peter Gleick pwned the Institute by pretending to be one of its board members and politely requesting that his "new" email address be added to Heartland's email list.
He then received Heartland's 2012 fundraising plan and other documents, which he shared with various blogs and news outlets. Heartland fired off nastygrams to sites that had published the documents, demanding they be taken down. At least one, DeSmogBlog, has refused, citing public interest in keeping the documents available….
My advice to Heartland: Google "Streisand effect," then let's talk. You can't put the data toothpaste back into the InterTubes after it's been squeezed out, but you can keep people from stepping in it every time they go online. By loudly proclaiming its victimhood and aggressively pursuing the leaks, Heartland has done far more than Gleick to publicize the things it would rather keep secret…
