Hack Or Leak?

If you are on the side of the believers in AGW you will also likely believe that the Climategate emails (and the far more important computer data files) were "stolen" or "hacked" by criminals, possibly professional Russian hackers, possibly hired by some combination of Big Oil conspirators.

But over at Watts Up With That there is a likely much simpler explanation:

First, few people know that there was already a previous leak last July. It turned out the "leaked" data was actually left on an open FTP server by none other than CRU Head Phil Jones himself.

Second, CRU had pending Freedom of Information requests for the very data that was leaked. It makes sense that the data for this request would be placed in one file pending the FOI approval process. It would take far too long, far too much insider knowledge and way too much access for hackers to assemble over 3,000 emails and 20,000 lines of computer code. Far more likely is that these data were assembled "in-house" at CRU and were awaiting a decision on the FOI request.

A few people inside CRU possessed the archive of documents being held in reserve in case the FOI appeal decision was made in favor of Steve McIntyre. They shared it with others by putting it in an FTP directory which was on the same CPU as the external webserver, or even worse, was an on a shared drive somewhere to which the webserver had permissions to access. In other words, if you knew where to look, it was publicly available. Then, along comes our “hackers” who happened to find it, download it, and the rest is history unfolding before our eyes. So much for the cries of sophisticated hacking and victimization noted above.

There’s an old adage: never attribute to malice that which may be explained by stupidity or incompetence.