Releases purloined data after hacking attack
A hacking attack by self-proclaimed members of Anonymous has uncovered highly disturbing data relating to a rape case in Steubenville, Ohio, that has garnered national attention.
The case garnered little attention until Alexandria Goddard, a crime blogger who came from Steubenville, started investigating the case based on the evidence on social media.
But after the case gained national prominence, a group of hackers dubbing themselves KnightSec took over the main fan site for the football team and posted a message warning those involved to turn themselves in or face consequences.
After the New Year the group revealed that in addition to hacking the Big Red fan site they had also downloaded the emails of the site's operator, and made the archive available for download on the Local Leaks website. More disturbingly, they released a 12-minute video of local athlete and now Ohio State college student identified as Michael Colin Nodianos joking about the incident he claims to have witnessed.
Whatever the facts of the case, it seems extraordinary that social media firms can't be enlisted to help sort out fact from fiction. Images and messages have been deleted, but backups are most likely held somewhere. Given the serious nature of the claimed offenses, the police should be given every opportunity to go through them.
