Politech: FC: Microsoft Word "bytes" Tony Blair in the butt

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Microsoft Word "bytes" Tony Blair in the butt
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 08:56:05 -0400

Hi,

Microsoft Word documents are notorious for containing private
information in file headers which people would sometimes rather not
share.  The British government of Tony Blair just learned this lesson
the hard way.

Last week, Alastair Campbell, Blair's Director of Communications and
Strategy, was in the hot seat in British Parliament hearings explaining
what roles four of his employees played in the creation of a plagiarized
dossier on Iraq which the UK government published in February 2003.  The
names of these four employees were found hidden inside of a Microsoft
Word file of the Iraq dossier which was posted on the 10 Downing Street
Web site for use by the press.  The "dodgy dossier" as it
became known in the British press raised serious questions about the
quality of British intelligence before the second Iraq war.

I wrote an article for my Web site about how a bit computer forensics
analysis
played a role in this controversy:

   http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com/privacy/blair.htm

Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com




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