Sounds like a script kiddy who made enemies with Daniel for some reason. - Jesse Stay

ouch Scoble what you saying :P directly linking a hack to TechCrunch, what next TechCrunch getting hacked now ;) - Keith Dsouza

Keith: nah, it just sounds like the same kind of thing that the hacker did to Twitter. - Robert Scoble

This is not Drew, I hacked his FriendFeed. Ok thats not true, it's me. - drew olanoff

This isn't at all what the hacker did to Twitter. He simply got auth to Wordpress, most likely a brute-force dictionary attack, very easy hack. He didn't get any other info from him - the kid who hacked in (and I say kid because it probably was) is inexperienced, I'm willing to bet. - Jesse Stay

That page doesn't even render right for me. Maybe it's an IE8 problem. Do you really think it was anti-TechCrunch? - RobinDotNet

I was just about to blame Drew's Cancer for this. - Jim Turner

Jim, is it *really* Drew's cancer though? - Jesse Stay

Okay bad joke, sorry Drew! I #blamedrewscancer for that. - Jesse Stay

I am so changing my password now. - Jim Turner

You could change your password to 'password'. Surely they wouldn't try that, because who would be that stupid now? (Only like 25% of system administrators I'd bet! ;-) ) - RobinDotNet

But I use 5's for the ss. Shhh don;t tell. - Jim Turner

Hey everyone - Daniel here. We just did a security audit, and no information, other then the screen shot posted. There is no way that the data could compromised in the future. We turned all registrations off until further notice as well. - Daniel Brusilovsky

My passwords are all in binary - Jesse Stay

script kiddies don't need a reason. - Eric

jesse stay -- I love that. Great idea, but lots of 1's and 0's. Hex would be shorter. - RobinDotNet

Robin, I'm referring more to Unicode, so I guess not binary. It's all binary in the end. :-) - Jesse Stay

Jesse Stay -- still love the idea. I feel the urge to write a translation program coming on... - RobinDotNet

It must be revenge! Nope, sounds like a regular hacker. Nothing REALLY serious. - wiredgnome from iPod

This has nothing to do with TC and Twitter. It's a middle-school rivalry and very small scale indeed. - Louis Gray

Louis, there's nothing more evil than a middle school rivalry. Handling those with aplomb prepares one for all challenges that will come thereafter. (Middle school. Shudder.) - Kathy Fitch

Daniel has issued an official response: http://blog.teensintech.com/2009... - Louis Gray

I think Daniel's being too nice to NND - Jesse Stay

oh man, that sucks, sorry daniel! - sean percival

"accessory to the crime" comes to mind on this one... - Jesse Stay

isn't this a newsworthy story? **confused** - Allen Stern

NND are only in the interest of keeping the security of sensitive information up-tight and secure. That is why we published the story. - Nathan Adam

Allen, newsworthy stories are typically worthy of being properly researched and documented, and are not littered with "our anonymous source." If a source must be protected, at the very least there would be some discussion of why, and an attempt to explain the source's credibility. This was pretty mudslinging stuff, the tone of which was not at all dominated by concern for end-user security. Concern about security would require first contacting the site admins. Then, the story could still run if need be, and with official response from the admins in question. Ethics--they never go out of style. - Kathy Fitch

Kathy, we have spoken to Daniel Bru, and he has also written a blog post revealing the truth of this article. The Blog Herald and the Inquistr both picked up the story and sourced our article, we also have credible screenshots of the admin panel, how could we possibly have these screenshots, without the source. Please read some of the tweets made on the @danielbru and the @teensintech for more information on the security concern that we uncovered. - Nathan Adam

I watched the whole thing unfold last night, Nathan. I'm curious--when did being able to produce stolen goods ever count as making a source credible? I'll stand by my take on it: a fact isn't the same thing as a truth, and posting a fact gained by nefarious means isn't inherently ethical. - Kathy Fitch

Nefarious means? This was not gained by criminal means, we were sent this by a source. Stolen goods? This is exposing a very big security leak of Teens in Tech, Net News Daily is trying to uphold the security of Teens in Tech members, we have spoken with Daniel and he agrees with our stance that we are trying to uphold the security of his members. - Nathan Adam

Someone hacked into it, Nathan. Who? That isn't newsworthy? - Kathy Fitch

Yes, but your comment makes it out that we criminally obtained this information. Net News Daily did not obtain the information criminally, the way the hacker obtained the information was unethical, but highlighted how easy it was to access a site that is used by many people of the younger generation. That is what I am stuck at. - Nathan Adam

I read the initial NND post, Nathan. A big part of the story was that the site apparently claims more visitors than the theft indicates is warranted. What's with that? How you came into possession of the stolen evidence of a hole in the security interests me. Is that story in the offing? - Kathy Fitch

Sorry, Paul, I don't agree. Of course, the theft is newsworthy, but the path the evidence took to the outlet is, as well. That matters. - Kathy Fitch

Yes, we got information that he had said in an interview on YouTube that he was number juggling, this was something that we were asked to highlight in our article, and was exposed in screenshots that we were given showed this. We just added this to our article after watching the video and seeing the lying. We do not know if the person who got into the site has something against Daniel because we really don't know. We have just been given this information. - Nathan Adam

Guess we'll have to call this one a permanent disagreement. Whatever the motivations of the hacker/thief, those screenshots were obtained unlawfully. To me, that's not, "oh, well, that's life, and we got a helluva story out it" type deal. That Daniel has responded with such aplomb, under the circumstances, does not alter my gut take on it. - Kathy Fitch

Ok, Kathy you are entitled to your own opinion and we have to accept everyone's take on the situation. I hope this one story doesn't give you a casting decision over our careers, as we are are still very young and learn a lot every day. We only know that we published the details of someone getting into an admin panel. The source was adamant that he wanted the post published on our site. We unfortunately cannot do anything about the access by the hacker, as we cannot go back in time.. - Nathan Adam

At least I can say that the good thing that comes from this is that the security leak has been patched, and we can move on from this and make sure that the internet environment is safer in the future. - Nathan Adam

If a bank robber circulates evidence of his crime, and I come into possession of that evidence, I'm interested in tracking down the robber, and getting him caught. Part of the story will surely be that clients of the bank should exercise due caution, and that the bank will need to tighten security, but a huge part of the story is that there's a robber on the loose, who endangers us all. I'd do whatever I could to get him caught. Do you plan to turn your focus to identifying the hacker, now? I'd admire that. - Kathy Fitch

This has happened before and as you have seen by Paul's input, TechCrunch recently released the Twitter documents, by an anonymous source, and I don't see your opinion stretching to this topic. Just because we are younger doesn't mean that you need to target us rather than the big fishes. Sources have a legal right to be kept anonymous. - Nathan Adam

Why invoke age? In life so far, I've noticed no correlation at all between age and ethical development. But I take it that's a "no" on nailing the hacker. - Kathy Fitch

We published the Teens in Tech article in the interest of making sure that the Teens in Tech is as secure as possible. If it wasn't primarily about that we would have thought twice about publishing it. However, we did believe that this in the long run would help, even if you do not agree with the ethics behind our way of making the internet more secure. - Nathan Adam

Guys, I do hear you--I simply have a different take on it. "Who would do that, and will he/she be nabbed?" interests me as a consumer of your story. Paul, I can see you're ticked (I think it's quite impossible simultaneously to welcome feedback and to designate it as bitching), so I'll leave it at that for now. I'm not a devotee of TechCrunch, so "hey, *they* do this too" is immaterial to me. Best of luck--if you ever do nab that hacker, I'll surely be in line to read that story, and to sing its praises, fwiw. Peace. - Kathy Fitch

As I said before Kathy you are entitled to your take on the story, and I do respect that. Paul has reflected his take too! Haha. Hope this doesn't create an overcasting impression on Net News Daily, for the future. Bye. - Nathan Adam

No worries there, Nathan. The story did the job of getting you on lots of radar screens, I think, so there's that. - Kathy Fitch

Haha, thank you again for your take, it has certainly been interesting! In some ways, on the negative radar screens, unfortunately. However, hopefully the reason for publishing has been and will be implemented. - Nathan Adam

Apparently the Patriot Act has been extended to cover corporate ethics...? And can be executed by anyone with a news blog? Give me a break. - Jason Hargrove

Incredible. I left a commentary on the original post a bit earlier. (I'll post it here for the record). In response, the original post was edited, with various information removed. A note was left stating that this action was in response to posted comments. I then left a third comment about how the original post should not have been edited, but perhaps updated. Minutes later, the entire post was removed. - Jason Hargrove

/////// For The Record /////// The following comments were addressed to Nathan Adam, Scott Campbell and Paul McEnhill at netnewsdaily.com. After comments 1 and 2 were posted, the information mentioned in my comments was removed and the original post edited. After comment 3 was posted, the entire post was removed. So much for transparency and accountability in "journalist" blogging. /////// COMMENT 1 /////// While there is some perceived "good" from this, the act of publishing rewards someone who obtained the information illegally. Apparently the Patriot Act has been extended to cover corporate ethics...? And can be executed by anyone with a news blog? Give me a break. Aside from issues covered by the Patriot Act (which is famously controversial in terms of personal rights and freedoms), most POLICE agencies are required to obtain warrants for this sort of monitoring. Cases are thrown out of court for acts like this. Those here saying that Daniel is not a victim apparently feel that law does not extend to the Internet. Remember when they used to call it the Wild West? This sort of thing serves the entire social media industry a disservice. Personally, I expect that there is a serious karmic backlash for the 'hacker' and this 'news' blog, if not a serious legal issue. Daniel, you've owned up to your mistake - that's great. But don't be bullied by some of these people saying you're the one who is wrong. I recommend that call whichever policing agency applies to you and file a complaint against this "news" blog. I also think you should reach out to @ev at Twitter and see if he has words of wisdom for you. No doubt they've had some very highly paid lawyers investigating various routes in regard to the famous incident that obviously inspired this "news" blog and it's (criminal) "source". Karma. /////// COMMENT 2 /////// PS: Regarding those who commented with "people's lives are at risk": While this may or may not be true, the appropriate thing would have been to comment... more... - Jason Hargrove

Hi Jason, I have spoken with Daniel and I have taken the article down for re-creation. I am happy to speak with you on the matter over e-mail. - Nathan Adam

Hi Nathan, I'm glad that you are working to resolve it. As you see from the many comments above (and via Twitter Search), you've left a trail of damage across the internet. It's only fair that the entire trail be recorded. I have nothing left to say. It's not my beef. I hope you and Daniel are able to resolve your issue, and wish you luck. More than anything, I hope that this event results in a higher standard of integrity from tech bloggers. I don't like the precedent that has been set this week. Peace. - Jason Hargrove

Thak you Jason, there is a story behind the story, which is quite depressing upon me. However, I am glad that I have been able to resolve things with Daniel on behalf of Net News Daily and myself. Thanks again, bye. - Nathan Adam

Nathan--that is one smart rewrite. I'm impressed. - Kathy Fitch