Dan's Police Blotter Hacked: Stories May Not Be True
Dan’s Papers’ Hamptons Police Blotter staff contacted local police this week to report that the Blotter department’s computers had been hacked.
The Blotter department operates an IBM 7030 mainframe computer and a UNIVAC 1103 under tight security in the Police Blotter bunker at Dan’s Papers headquarters, and the Hamptons Police Digital Crime Unit concluded quickly that any hacking of the system would have taken place onsite. An intensive investigation of the premises, however, revealed neither any traces of any hackers nor any clue as to how hackers may have gained access to the heavily guarded facility.
According to the Police Blotter department, the hack apparently did not involve the theft of any information, but rather the uploading of false stories into the system. These false stories, which Blotter staff say have been very cleverly written so as to seem plausible, have been programmed into the mainframe computers in such a way as to appear to come from reputable news sources. The same personnel explain that, as of press time, Dan’s Papers has yet to develop a way to distinguish surreptitiously uploaded Blotter items from legitimate Blotter items.
Until further notice, they advise that all Blotter items published in Dan’s Papers or DansPapers.com should be regarded by readers as possibly false—or, if readers prefer, possibly true.