14 DAY TRIAL // Environmental experts are focusing their attention on effective means of defending their work and privacy, after an unknown hacker succeeded in breaking into 5,000 personal emails exchanged between leading experts.
They say this initiative might have a significant impact upon the public opinion, as it tries to underestimate the influence of international actions meant to deal with the emerging climate change phenomenon, reports the Guardian.
A hacker's project now reveals 39,000 confidential pages belonging to researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), that have been uploaded to a Russian server almost two years after a similar initiative meant to disrupt the Copenhagen climate meeting from 2009.
The authorities that conducted the investigation were widely criticized, since the hacker's identity remains a mystery to this day.
The latest mishap could make the public doubt scientists' current position on the issue at hand, given that some of the things they say in the emails, put in a certain context, may suggest that they were politically driven to manipulate data and statistics, highlighting global warming as a consequence of human intervention.
The full emails reveal a different perspective, according to scientists whose names are involved in this scandal. All in all, it appears that the hacker did a very good job at taking elements out of the genuine context and giving them new meanings.
The same might happen this year to minimize people's confidence in the efficiency of the Durban summit in drawing out effective strategies to tackle global warming.
The hacker's actions are somehow embraced by a segment of the population, since they need to believe that climate change isn't as serious as scientists state.
"Sadly the messages that the hackers and their supporters seek to deliver feed an all-too-human need. Climate change is unwelcome news. This is the case not just for the obvious vested interests, but to all of us whose prosperity derives from its underlying causes." affirms expert Chris Rapley, from University College London in an article published by the Guardian.
Since the Norfolk Police are still unable to respond to questions regarding the 5,000 leaked private emails, while the hacker remains at liberty to play cat and mouse games where climate change is concerned.
So far, a lot of money has been invested in catching the bad guy, approximately £5,649 ($8,783/ €6,570) in the last 12 months, but without any visible results.
Just 3 days before the Durban Summit, the hacker is on the loose, still having plenty of time to toy with scientific data regarding climate change. His intervention has become almost as popular as the widely discussed phenomenon.