Reports that the same group responsible for the cyber attack on Sony Pictures is planning another hack on a news organization have been shown to be false. But an American freelance writer claims to be behind the story.
David Garret Jr. says he made a threatening post on Pastebin as a joke “and to show that no one investigates anything.”
The reports stemmed from an FBI bulletin, obtained by The Intercept, warning that the hacking group had a new target in mind. And sure enough, the media reported on the bulletin and the threat as legitimate.
This is one example of how the media takes statements from government officials as fact when reporting on cyber crimes like the Sony Pictures attack.
Even before President Obama officially implicated North Korea in the hack, two major news outlets, The Washington Post and The New York Times, granted anonymity for government officials to make the same claim. Those outlets’ stories approached the accusations with little skepticism. And major broadcasters reported the news with the same zeal.
“U.S. officials believe North Korea was behind the computer hacking attack on Sony Entertainment,” said Al Sharpton on MSNBC.
