The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "hacker" ...
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Cyber Espionage: The Chinese Threat
It’s the biggest threat facing American business today but the least talked about by corporate executives. Experts at the highest levels of government agree, cyber espionage is threatening to steal American wealth, American jobs and ultimately America’s economic security and the biggest aggressor is China. Due to the nature of the crime, the cost to American businesses is nearly impossible to pinpoint. Experts say Chinese hackers are constantly probing corporate networks, sifting through endless amounts of data to decipher what is valuable intellectual property, chemical formulas or proprietary technology. One conservative estimate from the National Counter Intelligence Executive puts the cost of economic espionage at up to $400B annually, but the report states such estimates vary “so widely as to be meaningless,” reflecting the scarcity of data available. CNBC’s David Faber and the Investigations Inc. team spoke with many corporate executives about China’s aggressive effort to target American businesses and their most valuable assets, but many refused to comment on camera for our report, citing becoming more vulnerable to attack by speaking publicly about the issue. However, not one executive denied their company is at risk of cyber-attack on a daily basis or the possibility of losing valuable intellectual property to cyber spies. Government and industry experts we spoke with on-camera have witnessed such costly cyber-attacks during their careers and attest to the fact there are only two companies left in America today: Those who know they’ve been hacked and those who don’t. From a whistleblower claiming telecommunications giant Nortel was one of the first casualties of this all-out cyber war, to high profile and public attacks on Google and RSA, its clear defending against cyber espionage is the new normal for American business.
Tags: Chinese hackers; American businesses; cyber attacks; cyber espionage
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Fatal System Error
The book details the inner workings of the criminal internet hackers and their links to government.
Tags: internet; hacking; cyber criminals
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Cell Phone Hacking
A hacker shows a reporter how vulnerable cell phones are to viruses, malware and theft. Phone security can be increased when users take precautions such as downloading security software, being aware of scams and password protecting their phones.
Tags: cell phones; cell; phone; malware; virus
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Cyber Snooping
Months of reporting led to this story about the growing fear of cyber espionage in the United States. For the first time the US Government admitted that an average person's communication devices are susceptible to hacking without there knowledge.
Tags: Hackers; technology; blackberry; cell phone; web security;
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The Lavender Scare
After leaving the NSA in 1960 to work in Russia, codebreakers Bill Martin and Bernie Mitchell were the men behind what is called the worst internal scnadal in NSA history. The Pentagon labels the men as being homosexuals who betrayed their country, yet NSA files with over 450 coworkers and friends show that neither man is in fact gay.
Tags: hacker; Soviet Union; Cold War; Lesbian; National Security Administration
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Hi-Tech Heist
"60 Minutes showed how hackers easily steal customer personal and financial data from retailers, through stores' wireless systems. And while both the retail industry and the credit card companies know this is a growing problems, they are caught up in a fight as to who's to blame, and who should pay to fix it."
Tags: credit cards; hackers; wireless; Internet; ecommerce; e-commerce; online shopping; retailers; TJX; theft
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Faking the Grade
This investigation, a follow up of a 2004 investigation of the same subject, found that test scores of more than 50,000 students across Texas show evidence of cheating. Cheating includes copying by students, as tests that are doctored by teachers and school administrators. Cheating is most common at underachieving schools, where the pressure to boost scores is the highest.
Tags: Philip Meyer Award; education; students; schools; cheating; tests; standardized tests; No Child Left Behind; regression analysis; Texas Education Agency; CAR; public records laws
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A million LIttle Pixels
Kansas City's Pitch Weekly reporter David Martin pokes holes in claims made by entrepreneur John FLowers, who got $500,000 in venture capital support from Kansas state's Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation.
Tags: Kozoru; background checks; venture capital; skunk works; computer hacker; DefCon; network security; Hiverworld; nCircle; natural language; Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation; KTEC; OPen Prairie Equity Partners; David Warthen; Ridgely Evers; Ask Jeeves; open records; instant messaging; mobile devices; cell phone; Wikipedia; Industry Ventures; reality-challenged statements
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Cybercrime, Inc.; Meth addicts' other habit: Online theft; Cyber safecrackers break into online accounts with ease; This little fob could foil a cyber bank robber; Net crooks con Americans into web of crime; Unprotected PCs can be hijacked in minutes; The rise of zombie computers -- Are hackers using your PC to spew spam and steal?; Tech industry has no unified defense system
These USA Today reporters set out to delineate the underlying economic drivers of cyber crime. On Sept. 8, 2004, Achohido and Swartz were the first to comprehensively describe how cyber crooks systematically took control of millions of home computers, turning them into zombies to carry out various fraud schemes. An accompanying cover story took big tech suppliers to task for placing an unfair burden on consumers for keeping the Internet safe. A November 30 story reported the results of a honey pot test -- designed and overseen by the reporters -- showing how simply connecting a new PC to the Internet triggers nonstop break-in attempts by intruders. They also outlined what readers can and should do to protect themselves. These findings were only the beginning of their investigation.
Tags: cyber fraud; Internet; online
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Hacker Hunters
The authors investigated a battle of wits between the U.S. secret service and a cyber-crime gang known as the ShadowCrew. The story covers a rare victory by law enforcement to shut down a web-based crime outfit. It gave a face to the ShadowCrew, a network of over 4,000 people run by a part time college student and gave a reminder to internet users to be wary of doing business on the Web.
Tags: Internet; cyber-crime; web-based crime outfit; ShadowCrew; the U.S. Secret Service; e-business; Internet security