14 DAY TRIAL // A former reporter for CBS has filed a lawsuit against the federal government for having her computer system accessed without her authorization between 2011 and 2013, and demands $35 / €29.5 million in return.
The accusations have been officially formulated this week by Sharyl Attkisson, and according to her, the government monitored computers and phones she used both for personal business and for work.
Computer and phone activity traced by the government
Attkisson was an investigative journalist, and in a book published last year she said that she became the subject of government surveillance operations for trying to obtain more information about an attack in 2012 at a US compound in Benghazi, Libya.
In a statement for The Hill, Attkisson said that three examinations of her devices revealed that sophisticated malware was used by the hackers to learn information about online accounts she owned for different services.
Her audio conversations via Skype have also been monitored, she claims. Everything pointed to the US government, but an answer on the matter she received from the Department of Justice rejected such involvement.
Experts trace malware to government device
It appears that her computer was analyzed by multiple security experts and in one case she was shown evidence of numerous spyware pieces that communicated information to an IP address allegedly assigned to a government device.
The unnamed security expert is quoted in the book as saying that the perpetrators had hacking skills “far beyond the abilities of even the best non-government hackers.”
However, the first rule of hacking is hiding the real IP address, and an expert would definitely route the connection in such a way that it is never traced to their true location or a machine known to be under their control.
Given the high degree of sophistication claimed by the reporter, this rule of thumb is likely to have been respected. This does not mean that Attkisson's allegations could not be true, though, since the malicious software used in the attacks seems to be available only to some federal agencies.
“Although I would have much preferred to have resolved this efficiently with dialogue and disclosure, until the government is open, honest, and fully truthful with my family about what transpired, we have chosen to use the only means available to us as citizens to try and force full disclosure and honest answers to the many questions that have been raised during the investigation conducted to date,” she told The Hill.
