Tricksterish hoaxing definitely is an integral part of online-culture. At c0x2.de an unidentified individual posing as an electrical engineer and US-citizen ↑reports that he found a keylogging-device similar to the ↑KeyGhost brand inside his Dell-laptop—inserted right between keyboard and ethernet board. The individual wants to have contacted the police, which in turn forwarded him/her to the Department of Homeland Security. He/she wrote to the latter and got the reply: “We have reviewed your Freedom of Information Act request, and have found that the requested records are exempt from being disclosed under FOIA. […]“ Meanwhile I am socialized enough in here to be good-humouredly on the guard. Especially after ↑dopefish reported [in German] about the random academic falling prey to an anti-419-scam-hoax. So a quick search at BoingBoing ↑revealed all this to be a hoax. Boingboing readers have made some worthwhile points, which are strong arguments against the authenticity of the report. I’ll add another two cents: 1) The ‘Freedom of Information & Privacy Officer’ signed “Kathy J. Lyerly” 2) The whole document is called “lol.html” and resides in a folder called “lol”. k tnx—nice take, guys [no irony here, I really like practical jokes like that]. What we learn: the Bush-administration seems not to have evolved thus far yet. ↑On the other hand … All this reminds me of ↑van Eck phreaking, starring so prominently in Neal Stephenson’s ingenious ↑Cryptonomicon.
initially via f²