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  • CIA aggressors edit Wikipedia!

    Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits'

    By Jonathan Fildes
    Science and technology reporter, BBC News

    An online tool that claims to reveal the identity of organisations that edit Wikipedia pages has revealed that the CIA was involved in editing entries.

    Wikipedia Scanner allegedly shows that workers on the agency's computers made edits to the page of Iran's President.

    It also purportedly shows that the Vatican has edited entries about Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

    The tool, developed by US researchers, trawls a list of 5.3m edits and matches them to the net address of the editor.

    Wikipedia is a free online encyclopaedia that can be created and edited by anyone.

    Most of the edits detected by the scanner correct spelling mistakes or factual inaccuracies in profiles. However, others have been used to remove potentially damaging material or to deface sites.

    Mistaken identity

    On the profile of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the tool indicates that a worker on the CIA network reportedly added the exclamation "Wahhhhhh!" before a section on the leader's plans for his presidency.

    A warning on the profile of the anonymous editor reads: "You have recently vandalised a Wikipedia article, and you are now being asked to stop this type of behaviour."

    Other changes that have been made are more innocuous, and include tweaks to the profile of former CIA chief Porter Goss and celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey.

    When asked whether it could confirm whether the changes had been made by a person using a CIA computer, a spokesperson responded: "I cannot confirm that the traffic you cite came from agency computers.

    "I'd like in any case to underscore a far larger and more significant point that no one should doubt or forget: The CIA has a vital mission in protecting the United States, and the focus of this agency is there, on that decisive work."

    Radio change

    The site also indicates that a computer owned by the US Democratic Party was used to make changes to the site of right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

    The changes brand Mr Limbaugh as "idiotic," a "racist", and a "bigot". An entry about his audience now reads: "Most of them are legally retarded."

    The IP address is registered in the name of the Democratic National Headquarters.

    A spokesperson for the Democratic Party said that the changes had not been made on its computers. Instead, they said that the "IP address is the same as the DCCC".

    The DCCC, or Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is the "official campaign arm of the Democrats" in the House of Representatives and share a building with the party.

    "We don't condone these sorts of activities and we take very precaution to ensure that our network is used in a responsible manner," Doug Thornell of the DCCC told the BBC News website.

    Mr Thornell pointed out that the edit had been made "close to two years ago" and it was "impossible to know" who had done it.

    Voting issue

    The site also indicates that Vatican computers were used to remove content from a page about the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

    The edit removed links to newspaper stories written in 2006 that alleged that Adams's finger prints and hand prints were found on a car used during a double murder in 1971.

    The section, titled "Fresh murder question raised" is no longer available through the online encyclopaedia.

    Wikipedia Scanner also points the finger at commercial organisations that have modified entries about the pages.

    One in particular is Diebold, the company that supplied electronic voting machines for the controversial US election in 2000.

    In October 2005, a person using a Diebold computer removed paragraphs about Walden O'Dell, chief executive of the company, which revealed that he had been "a top fund-raiser" for George Bush.

    A month later, other paragraphs and links to stories about the alleged rigging of the 2000 election were also removed.

    The paragraphs and links have since been reinstated.

    Diebold officials have not responded to requests by the BBC for information about the changes.

    Web history

    The Wikipedia Scanner results are not the first time that people have been uncovered editing their own Wikipedia entries.

    Earlier this year, Microsoft was revealed to have offered money to experts to trawl through entries about the company and its products to make corrections.

    Staff at the US Congress have also previously been exposed for editing and removing sensitive information about politicians.

    An inquiry was launched after staff for Democratic representative Marty Meehan admitted polishing his biography

    The new tool was built by Virgil Griffith of the California Institute of Technology.

    It exploits the open nature of Wikipedia, which already collects the net address or username of editors and tracks all changes to a page. The information can be accessed in the "history" tab at the top of a Wikipedia page.

    By merging this information with a database of IP address owners, Wikipedia Scanner is able to put a name to the organisation and firms from which edits are made.

    The scanner cannot identify the individuals editing articles, admits Mr Griffith.

    "Technically, we don't know whether it came from an agent of that company, however, we do know that edit came from someone with access to their network," he wrote on the Wikipedia Scanner site.

    A spokesperson for Wikipedia said the tool helped prevent conflicts of interest.

    "We really value transparency and the scanner really takes this to another level," they said.

    "Wikipedia Scanner may prevent an organisation or individuals from editing articles that they're really not supposed to."

    Story from BBC NEWS:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...gy/6947532.stm
    Co-Founder, Apolyton Civilization Site
    Co-Owner/Webmaster, Top40-Charts.com | CTO, Apogee Information Systems
    giannopoulos.info: my non-mobile non-photo news & articles blog

  • #2
    THEY!!111 OMG WTF LOL LET DA NOMADS AND TEH S3D3NTARY PEOPLA BOTH MAEK BITER AXP3REINCES
    AND TEH GRAAT SINS OF THERE [DOCTRINAL] INOVATIONS BQU3ATH3D SMAL
    AND!!1!11!!! LOL JUST IN CAES A DISPUTANT CALS U 2 DISPUT3 ABOUT THEYRE CLAMES
    DO NOT THAN DISPUT3 ON THEM 3XCAPT BY WAY OF AN 3XTARNAL DISPUTA!!!!11!! WTF

    Comment


    • #3
      This isn't funny, LS. This is government censorship.

      CIA loses to teh people. What a surprise.
      Click here if you're having trouble sleeping.
      "We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones." - François de La Rochefoucauld

      Comment


      • #4
        This does not surprise me at all.



        Spec.
        -Never argue with an idiot; He will bring you down to his level and beat you with experience.

        Comment


        • #5
          "Wahhhhhh!"
          The enemy cannot push a button if you disable his hand.

          Comment


          • #6
            When asked whether it could confirm whether the changes had been made by a person using a CIA computer, a spokesperson responded: "I cannot confirm that the traffic you cite came from agency computers.

            "I'd like in any case to underscore a far larger and more significant point that no one should doubt or forget: The CIA has a vital mission in protecting the United States, and the focus of this agency is there, on that decisive work."


            Of course. And if we for a moment thought it wasn't, all those precious government jobs might be in jeopardy.

            -Arrian
            grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

            The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

            Comment


            • #7
              Dude, I've edited Wikipedia from DoD Computers before. This means nothing.
              Today, you are the waves of the Pacific, pushing ever eastward. You are the sequoias rising from the Sierra Nevada, defiant and enduring.

              Comment


              • #8
                Obviously it was a random employe who was editing something funny in.
                if you want to stop terrorism; stop participating in it

                ''Oh,Commissar,if we could put the potatoes in one pile,they would reach the foot of God''.But,replied the commissar,''This is the Soviet Union.There is no God''.''Thats all right'' said the worker,''There are no potatoes''

                Comment


                • #9
                  Doesn't this mean you can also easier track down changes made by people at other institutions like schools and universities?
                  Skeptics should forego any thought of convincing the unconvinced that we hold the torch of truth illuminating the darkness. A more modest, realistic, and achievable goal is to encourage the idea that one may be mistaken. Doubt is humbling and constructive; it leads to rational thought in weighing alternatives and fully reexamining options, and it opens unlimited vistas.

                  Elie A. Shneour Skeptical Inquirer

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    This is probably the least of Wikipedia's problems. At least one administrator is suspected of being an intelligence agent, or a former intelligence agent, and one of her friends has a similarly dubious record of edits there.

                    Wikipedia is a great idea, but it is run by an idiot, who has allowed his own idiocy to affect the way the project is run.
                    Only feebs vote.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by CapTVK
                      Doesn't this mean you can also easier track down changes made by people at other institutions like schools and universities?
                      I am editing the NCAA 07 Football Championship to reflect an OSU win. I will be using an OSU computer.
                      "I hope I get to punch you in the face one day" - MRT144, Imran Siddiqui
                      'I'm fairly certain that a ban on me punching you in the face is not a "right" worth respecting." - loinburger

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        it looks more like CIA employees having fun to me
                        Any views I may express here are personal and certainly do not in any way reflect the views of my employer. Tis the rising of the moon..

                        Look, I just don't anymore, okay?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          AH, exactly. WAAAHH!!!! doesn't seem like a campagn of subtle messages to me.
                          In da butt.
                          "Do not worry if others do not understand you. Instead worry if you do not understand others." - Confucius
                          THE UNDEFEATED SUPERCITIZEN w:4 t:2 l:1 (DON'T ASK!)
                          "God is dead" - Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" - God.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by MRT144


                            I am editing the NCAA 07 Football Championship to reflect an OSU win. I will be using an OSU computer.
                            Good idea, I'm editing in that Auburn won in 2004 since we all know that the SEC is BY FAR the best conference and that the USC wimps were terrified that they'd have to play the tigers and fixed the voting so they wouldnt have to.
                            We need seperate human-only games for MP/PBEM that dont include the over-simplifications required to have a good AI
                            If any man be thirsty, let him come unto me and drink. Vampire 7:37
                            Just one old soldiers opinion. E Tenebris Lux. Pax quaeritur bello.

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                            • #15
                              The Culinary Institute of America is editing wiki articles? Man! Oh, the huge Manatee... with herb butter... please
                              Monkey!!!

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