Media (FIN)

Publishing errata in news articles that cover security and hacking was the impetus of the entire Errata project. At a time when security and hacking were becoming increasingly popular, journalists were blindly stumbling into this new field with a notion that they could leave fact-checking and integrity behind. There seemed to be a serious disconnect between security articles and anything else journalists covered, as if the field was only worth pieces that were as much op-ed as fact.

Writing to a journalist or their editor usually proved a waste of time. Constructive criticism was ignored or met with a smug attitude that some 'hacker site' couldn't possibly be right or relevant, while the journalist refused to admit any error. As the bandwagon grew, so did the number of articles and errata. It would have literally be a full-time job to read, analyze, debunk and post errata on articles that have become overly repetitive, dramatic and overly liberal with the use of the words "hacked" or "hacker".

Even worse, with researchers and vendors inventing new terms to name slight variations on older attacks or offerings, the current state of media has turned into Buzzword Bingo with ill-defined terminology at best. Articles barely scrape the surface of security including events, technology, exploits or anything else marginally related. Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) is still a powerful and over-used weapon in the hands of journalists.

As a result, this section of the Errata project is no longer updated. Instead, we occasionally reply to articles posted to the InfoSec mail list, challenging the journalist when a given article stands above the rest in poor quality.

Articles are sorted by publication, then journalist and finally by date. For the errata, the article will be printed, with comments in red text (in brackets), followed by any general observations about the article. Original article links may be dead, but are kept for reference. Accuracy and integrity in journalism must be checked and held at high standards. There is no excuse for anything less.

In the past, a handful of journalists or other bodies have debunked articles in their own writing. Kudos to these journalists for stepping up to the plate and speaking out against the lies.

Copyright 1998-2011 by Attrition.org. Permission is granted to quote, reprint or redistribute provided the text is not altered, and appropriate credit is given.