Comments on: Did the NYT hack Fabrice Tourre’s email?

By: MBS83

MBS83 — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:58:13 +0000

Even more interesting than what this all says about the Times is what is illustrates about the shortcomings of blogs: Idle speculation (emphasis on “idle,” as in “not bothering to do the work of reporting”) spawns rumors that beget more idle speculation that beget more rumors. Asking questions is easy. Getting the right answers is hard.

By: PhilPerspective

PhilPerspective — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:31:19 +0000

DCos:
This still doesn’t explain away why emails were still going to the old computer. And why would Tourre send work emails to a personal computer. There are still many unanswered questions.

By: DCos

DCos — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:55:40 +0000

Maybe the laptop was stolen… It is possible some petty thief thought they could unload it easily but they realized it had a name on it. The guy in the John Cook link says it is Tourre’s computer but NYT insists that it isn’t. Either way, it is hugely unethical. Wouldn’t you just try and contact Tourre’s lawyers (whom you could find via a quick Google search on your free laptop) and let them know you have his emails instead of giving someone’s private emails to a reporter? If all of this is true (I am skeptical) then Tourre may be the world’s unluckiest email user.

By: guanix

guanix — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 01:49:09 +0000

mwolfe: Maybe they initially got them from another source, but used the computer to confirm that the emails were genuine?

By: mwolfe

mwolfe — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:33:51 +0000

Update 5 makes no sense. How does the statement that none of the emails cited in the NYT story “came from Mr. Tourre’s email system on the computer” mean that they knew exactly what was on the computer. Can’t that statement merely mean that they came from an alternate source? It didn’t say “those emails were never accessible or on the computer”. Seems very accusatory.

By: MaxKennerly

MaxKennerly — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:12:16 +0000

Felix’s “update” views on the SCA/hacking are correct. If Cohen/Koan just dumped emails on the NYTimes, they have nothing to worry about. If, instead, the NYTimes was at any point monitoring his email — or, really, anyone’s email — then they were intentionally accessing an electronic communication service without authorization. It is irrelevant to the SCA if they published the emails or not.

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:37:07 +0000

It’s certainly possible to autoforward emails to any mail account, on a computer without security. You’ll even get company emails automatically sent to a smartphone, and not need a password. If either device is lost or stolen, you would have to change your email account password on the mail server, something that might not occur to everyone.

However, if I were given a laptop with software from any source, the first thing I would do is delete any existing accounts in the email client, to make room for my own accounts. In any case, knowingly receiving email addressed to others, even unintentionally, can be a crime.

By: hsvkitty

hsvkitty — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:20:17 +0000

First thing my huge company did was issue laptops to each department. Second thing they did was add security and match each one to an owner for inventory… oops. They did manage to match up quite a few… surprisingly, as many were honest and a few Dept heads did their own inventory.

Who said this was a work laptop? The newer emails are between he and lawyers no? The older condemning ones were in the releases dumped on SEC, no?

Also, one more thing. If you read Tourre’s emails, he is a loud mouthed narcissistic blowhard who said some pretty odd and damning things in emails. Does he sound like the kind of guy who was interested in security?

By: marcelliott

marcelliott — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:55:55 +0000

Everything about this story is sketchy-from GS letting a key employee throw out a work laptop without “wiping it” to the claim the laptop kept getting emails. But being a lawyer I know that the legal issue is whether Tourre had aa “reasonable expectation of privacy” in his emails. The argument would be that if he threw his laptop in the trash, he no longer expected it to be private. I hate to think of the Times making up a cover story but you know they lawyered up and this is a lawyer’s defense. But the underlying facts are so unworthy of belief that you have to wonder.

By: Christofurio

Christofurio — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:37:50 +0000

“These legal replies, which are not public, were provided to The New York Times by Nancy Cohen, an artist and filmmaker in New York also known as Nancy Koan,”

Interesting duality. Covering opposite ends of the continent of Asia, so to speak.

(Not that there’s anything wrong with that….)

“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

“Oh, gee, what a profound Cohen!”

By: EricVincent

EricVincent — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:37:06 +0000

@FresnoDan: +1

This has got “false-flag op” written all over it.

Ring. “Hello?”

“Nancy, this is Fabulous Fab. There’s going to be a laptop in the dumpster in exactly one hour. Go get it and hold onto it for me for a while, would you?”

By: tom_o

tom_o — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:17:20 +0000

What corporate laptop isn’t password protected when you open the lid, nevermind the Outlook account. And what IT deptartment (presumably) issued Toure a new laptop without remotely wiping his old one?

And if it wasn’t a corporate laptop, what’s Toure got to say about how the laptop ended up in the ‘trash area’ of a building?

This makes zero sense.

By: PhilPerspective

PhilPerspective — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:39:40 +0000

FresnoDan:
Even if you are right about Tourre, the NYT explanation makes no sense. There is a lot missing from the NYT story.

By: fresnodan

fresnodan — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:35:06 +0000

Looks like misdirection to me. I think Toure got tired of getting the big Goldman up the wazoo, and decided to start making Goldman take it up the wazoo. C’mon, the whole story is how innocent Toure is and how he was getting screwed by Goldman. Toure naviely (according to Toure’s own self portrait) thought the evidence was overwhelming (that he was a small cog and what was going on CDO’s was due to Goldman, not Toure.
Considering how long this has been going on, the only real question is: Did Toure play naive to lure Goldman into making on the record statements in court?

By: daveharrison

daveharrison — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:02:05 +0000

It’s true. I am always finding sweet bulge bracket investment banker laptops in dumpsters. The amazing thing is how the laptops are always functional, the passwords are there and the emails just keep streaming right to the laptop. What do you think they do with old laptops anyway? They get new ones all the time. These guys are so loaded, they don’t think twice about just tossing perfectly good technology.

Try it for yourself. Just bring a bottle of Febreze and spray it on yourself after you climb out. It covers the odors whether you get them from the dumpster, or even from working at the public relations department of the company.

http://tradewithdave.com/?p=6650

Dave Harrison
http://www.tradewithdave.com