Climate E-Mails Possibly Stolen by Spies, Say U.K. Experts
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The sun rises over planet Earth in this photo an astronaut captured from the International Space Station. (NASA/JSC)
Britain's former chief scientist claimed Monday that a sophisticated hacking operation that led to the leaking of hundreds of climate e-mails was likely carried out by a foreign intelligence agency.
Sir David King, who was Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser for seven years until 2007, told The Independent newspaper that the hacking and selective leaking of e-mails from the Climatic Research Unit in East Anglia bore all the hallmarks of a coordinated spying operation.
The e-mails and documents, some of which date back to 1994, were first released on October 12.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}However, they were not widely published until November 17, shortly before the crucial Copenhagen Climate summit.
After appearing on a climate science Web site realclimate.org, which was quickly shut down by its owners, the data were then posted on skeptic site The Air Vent. That post linked back to a computer in Russia, where the files were hosted.
Sir David suggested the e-mail leaks were deliberately designed to destabilize Copenhagen and he dismissed the idea that it was a run-of-the-mill hacking.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"A very clever nerd can cause a great deal of disruption and obviously make intelligence services very nervous, but a sophisticated intelligence operation is capable of yielding the sort of results we've seen here," he told The Independent.