Cameras Catch Mystery Break-In at Whistleblower’s Law Firm | Hacker News Reader

Cameras Catch Mystery Break-In at Whistleblower’s Law Firm

thecable.foreignpolicy.com

125 pointsshawndumas63 comments

What's interesting to me is that the CBS reporter who has done much of the reporting in question on the State Department (Sharyl Attkisson) recently had her computers hacked:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5885212

You can skip the splash screen by running the following in the JS console:

    $('#TB_window').hide()
    $('#TB_overlay').hide()

I am not as smart as you guys. I just added: ?page=0,0

to the end of any URL on that site. I guess I am more of a trouble shooter than a hacker. Glad to see other ways of doing the same thing.

Here is a clickable link for people who are as lazy as I am:

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/07/07/cameras_c...

I like $('#TB_window, #TB_overlay').hide() better :P

Why all those extra characters? :)

$('div[id^=TB_]').hide()

you geeks. just refresh the page and press ESC when it's just starting to load.

Your solution is the quickest but inapparent to many. It worked perfectly for me

It's amazing how many clever sites with clever JavaScript splash screens this works on. For instance, EmberCasts when it was "invite only" mode could be accessed this way.

Yea, but that requires timing. If you just click the favicon in Chrome there's a dropdown with permissions. Turn off JavaScript. Refresh.

You can also right click in Chrome or Safari and hit inspect element. It's not hard to figure out which nodes to \backspace from there.

Yep, that's what I did.

If you are using Safari, just hit the "Reader" button, and the story comes up above the splash screen.

This is also a good way to get around unusable "designed for iPad" interfaces when browsing on your iPad.

Ha! I love this! All the hackers faced with the 'register' wall. I dont consider myself a hacker, rather a game dev but I felt like a hacker just using firebug to delete the offending divs

Or you can just disable Javascript by default.

Or you can use google. When the referral is google sites can't have a paywall on the first page.

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:http%3A%2F%2Fthecable.fo...

Didn't stop it from happening when I loaded the page :(

Thank you noscript!

I just used ABP Element Hiding Helper.

Ha. I did the same thing before I read the comments.

Gee, this sounds familiar...

Popping open filing cabinets and ignoring other things. I guess they are still working from the same playbook.

In computing we often try to find new and extravagant ways to do the same old tasks. i.e. I'm going to use a new language that lets me write {beautiful, functional, etc} code... Exciting new things are fun!

In an op like this, exciting can get you killed. Proper tradecraft is very much focused on executing a successful mission within a very narrow operating window. When planning you try to build in as many opportunities for adaptation as possible, but in execution try to use as few of them as possible. A boring uneventful operation is a good day at work because you get to go home to your family.

Just because they used methods that work doesn't mean they are running from the "same playbook." They are staying safe and getting the job done. Have some respect for fellow professionals, regardless of trade.

Eh, it probably couldn't hurt to kick over a desk or two on your way out.

Never in a million years would I have wrecked a place unless it was necessary.

Not only is it a huge compromise of operational security and adds nothing to your cover, it is just a dick thing to do. Some poor secretary is going to have to stay late a month from now, and I don't want her to be freaking out worrying that someone violent might be coming back.

Seems awfully considerate for somebody kicking in a wall and robbing a place.

This is what you would call "evidence feast".

Often planted evidence is made such that it raises no doubt that other party is guilty that it's also blatantly obvious that it's suspect.

What's the tripping point for me? being reported only by fox news. even in the interview quotes they say "obama administration"...

It's sad how bad the (physical and IT) security is at most law firms (and how high the return would be from breaking in -- especially firms handling public-company M&A transactions).

Anyone got a link to the same story without the signinwall? This article is not viewable without it.

Here's the copy:

The offices of a Dallas law firm representing a high-profile State Department whistleblower were broken into last weekend. Burglars stole three computers and broke into the firm's file cabinets. But silver bars, video equipment and other valuables were left untouched, according to local Fox affiliate KDFW, which aired security camera footage of the suspected burglars entering and leaving the offices around the time of the incident.

The firm Schulman & Mathias represents Aurelia Fedenisn, a former investigator at the State Department's Office of the Inspector General. In recent weeks, she raised a slew of explosive allegations against the department and its contractors ranging from illicit drug use, soliciting sexual favors from minors and prostitutes and sexual harassment.

"It's a crazy, strange and suspicious situation," attorney Cary Schulman told The Cable. "It's clear to me that it was somebody looking for information and not money. My most high-profile case right now is the Aurelia Fedenisn case, and I can't think of any other case where someone would go to these great lengths to get our information."

According to the KDFW report, the firm was the only suite burglarized in the high-rise office building and an unlocked office adjacent was left untouched.

The State Department, which has repeatedly disputed Fedenisn's allegations, denied any involvement in the incident. "Any allegation that the Department of State authorized someone to break into Mr. Schulman's law firm is false and baseless," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

After assessing the surveillance footage, Schulman said he believed the motivations were likely political, but did not suspect department involvement. "It wasn't professional enough," he said. "It is possible that an Obama or Hillary supporter feels that I am unfairly going after them. And the timing of this is right after several weeks of very public media attention so it seems to me most likely that the information sought is related to that case. I don't know for sure and I want the police to do their work."

Fedenisn's case, in particular, has gained attention not just because of the substance of the allegations, but for her insistence that internal investigations into misconduct were "influenced, manipulated or simply called off" by senior State Department officials. The suppression of investigations was noted in an early draft of an Inspector General report she gave to CBS News, but softened in the final version.

Last month, her lawyers told The Cable that the department tried to intimidate her into silence. "They had law enforcement officers camp out in front of her house, harass her children and attempt to incriminate herself," claimed Schulman.

Schulman said the purpose of the visit was to get Fedenisn to sign documents admitting that she stole State Department documents -- a charge Fedenisn denies.

Schulman & Mathias represent a range of clients on matters from fraud to wrongful death to bad faith insurance practices to medical malpractice. Any number of those cases could've exposed the firm to such a break in, but Schulman said he was skeptical. "I'm involved in other cases locally, but those cases are rather stale."

I used Quick Javascript Switcher for Chrome to disable JS and skip the paywall. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quick-javascript-s...

I left Javascript disabled and didn't notice anything.

>This article is not viewable without it.

5 seconds of firebug magic fixes that. :)

If you are in chrome open the inspector and delete the nodes

I used viewtext: http://bit.ly/14YE0GD

You can also jump from Google.

https://www.google.com/search?q=foreign+policy+cameras+catch...

http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/07/08/cameras-catch-mystery-b...

Same video on both pages.

Just press "stop" before the modal dialog loads.

Or they left something, cameras, ethernet sniffers, or other recording devices.

I don't think you would make that much of a mess and steal three computers if your goal was to surreptitiously plant listening devices. Call me crazy.

A little irrationality thrown in is to your advantage ;)

This story seems to heavily imply that the government authorised somebody to break into the firm and steal the data relating to the whistleblower's case. That strikes me as highly unlikely. This entire story seems like the ultimate in yellow journalism. Maybe we should wait and see if the thief gets caught before we jump the gun and claim it's a conspiracy.

Not at all unlikely since the FBI has been in the practice of using surreptitious entry since at least the 1970 at the behest of the NSA and the CIA in a bid to recover cryptographic keys and other information instead of having to brute force them. Why spend all that money on computation when you can just break into someone's Embassy instead and steal it?

James Bamford discusses this at length in The Puzzle Palace - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puzzle_Palace

The government broke into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office so that they could steal his patient files and use them to discredit him. Fortunately they couldn't find the files.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#Fielding_break-...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/opinion/30krogh.html

I read a lot of news articles and editorials and have taken a couple of journalism classes and IMO this reads like a very objective article that properly quotes every party that's involved. "Yellow journalism" is a really strong and misguided criticism.

The article quotes an employee of the law firm clearly stating he doesn't suspect the state department was involved. It also reports that the state department has repeatedly denied any involvement. Neither the headline nor any part of the article declares that the government was involved in the breakin.

Yeah, nothing like this has ever been done in recent history, so it seems premature to jump to conclusions.

>That strikes me as highly unlikely.

Why? Are you new here? Want to read some transcripts of Nixon ordering all kinds of shady things along a similar vein? http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ellsberg/nixon...

That said, it could just as easily be foreign intelligence operatives looking for material with which to extort US spies/diplomats.

Interesting that in your 123 days here, you've made a point of defending the government in almost all of your comments. What makes you so secure in your trust?

Maybe he's part of the conspiracy?

What conspiracy are you referring to?

He's an agent of the government!

Considering we already know that they're paying people to post on social news websites like Reddit and HN, it's not especially unlikely.

Had someone on reddit attack me pretty vehemently this morning for suggesting something similar there. The account in question was pretty much hanging on the US government's nuts in every comment.

On the contrary, the article highlights the firms guess that it was an Obama or Hilary supporter, not the state department.

The specific paragraph, for reference:

> This story seems to heavily imply that the government authorised somebody to break into the firm and steal the data relating to the whistleblower's case. That strikes me as highly unlikely

Chances are, it was.

Just look for the agency with the most interest in their documents.

Do you have a better hypothesis?

> Just look for the agency with the most interest in their documents.

Maybe it would have been done by a group interested in having it look like the government was trying to steal data relating to this whistleblower case? Even weirder things than that have happened IRL.

I think I accidentally downvoted you. Sorry.

No worries, I've done it too, and I'm used to seeing an occasional comment in light gray by now anyways. ;)

Maybe, but is it more likely than the government stealing the data?

I thought the government already had it? :) :)

Here's the link without the annoying popup: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/07/07/cameras_c...

This story highlights how important remote backup and full disk encryption are. If they have automatic remote backup they can be back online the next day with nothing lost. If they use full disk encryption their data will be safe.

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