Rupert Murdoch-linked pirate website targeted rivals, online file shows

[alp227]

Source: The Observer

A computer piracy website, secretly supported by one of Rupert Murdoch's companies, openly promoted advice on how to hack BSkyB's rivals, according to documents obtained by the Observer.

Emails obtained by this newspaper also reveal that a senior employee of NDS, the Murdoch company, insisted he was personally responsible for setting up The House of Ill Compute (Thoic) site. NDS says it paid Thoic's chief hacker, Lee Gibling, for information allowing it to monitor and prosecute software pirates legitimately.

But the documents provide a new perspective on potentially toxic allegations that resurfaced in a BBC Panorama programme broadcast last week – more than a decade after they first materialised – and which triggered a ferocious rebuttal from Murdoch and his News Corp empire.

The allegations come as the media regulator Ofcom assesses News Corp's near-40% holding in BSkyB following the phone-hacking scandal that saw the closure of Murdoch's News of the World newspaper. At its peak in 2000, Thoic claimed it was receiving as many as 3m hits a day.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/01/bskyb-itv-ondigital-hacking-nds

[Ian David]

1. I have it on good authority that Murdoch is both Captain Midnight AND ZeroCool. n/t

[DJ13]

2. Gross!

Just had a mental image of the old prune in a spandex costume!

[goclark]

3. Is Piers Morgan his good buddy?

Just my opinion ~ others may think he is an A +

I find it difficult to listen to Piers ~ wasn't he tied up with the Murdoch Newspapers stuff?

Interesting that of all the hundreds of people that could have come after Larry King -- it's Piers.

[MADem]

4. Piers was editor of the now-defunct News of the World once upon a time.

So he worked for that buzzard and likely had his paws in some of that ugly stuff we're hearing about now.

[goclark]

5. I've always wondered how Piers got the job when we have

so many talented Media People that are made in the USA

[MADem]

6. He likely knew where a lot of bodies were buried.

He had the clout to force people to appear on his show, even if they didn't want to...bet he's got less of that clout now! I wonder if he'll escape this slowly growing scandal?