Monday 17 June 2019

Has the New York Times gone too far with its latest scoop?

The New York Times is a great newspaper whatever Donald Trump says. But has the editor gone too far by publishing the paper's latest scoop which reveals that the US government has been covertly putting malware into Russian computers to target the country's electricity grid? I'm sure that the US, especially under Trump, is engaged in all kinds of secret cyber warfare operations. This is the world we now live in. Russia is certainly doing the same thing back. But is it wise for a newspaper with the standing of the New York Times to reveal to the world what the US is doing supposedly in secret? If the editor's intention was to say how disgraceful this is and it should be stopped, then that would be fine I guess. But this is not a campaigning piece, this is an old-fashioned "We are going to tell all because we found it out and current and former intelligence officials have confirmed it." It's a straightforward news scoop without an agenda. I'm all for those but here in Britain we couldn't get away with revealing something that has the potential for damaging the nation's security interests. We have very strict rules to deter editors from exposing operational secrets. No such limits seem to govern reporting in the US. Trump has accused the New York Times of virtual treason, while carefully claiming the story to be untrue. Well, Mr President, if it's untrue then you don't need to worry and have no reason to accuse the newspaper of treason. But if it's true, as has bee confirmed by past and present officials who don't seem to be worried by treason accusations, then I can sort of understand why Trump is so angry at the New York Times, accusing it of acting against the interests of its own country. Oh dear, I kinda agree with that. It's a fascinating read, of course, but what is a prestigious newspaper like the New York Times doing tipping off the Kremlin about a secret cyber operation by the US. You could argue that the Kremlin would be well aware of the risks, but that's not really an argument for splashing details of the cyber operations all over the paper. It's a very tricky one. This is a dangerous world we live in and sometimes there have to be secrets that should remain secret. Of course it was the New York Times that revealed the notorious Stuxnet operation in which the US and Israel devised a brilliant malware code to insert into Iran's gas centrifuge system vital for enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb. It caused massive damage. Amazing story but a gift for the ayatollahs.

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