Sharyl Attkisson, a CBS News investigative reporter who has won praise for her coverage on the Benghazi controversy, said last month that her personal computer has been accessed by a mysterious third party over the past two years. CBS News has now completed its own investigation of the claims and has confirmed that an “intruder” has accessed her computers.
In May, Attkisson told a Philadelphia radio show that her computer and email had been “compromised” and later sent a statement to Plotico. “I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some investigation on my end for some months but I'm not prepared to make an allegation against a specific entity today as I've been patient and methodical about this matter,” the reporter said at the time.
CBS News vowed to do its own investigation and on Friday, it announced its findings, reports The Huffington Post. Attkisson herself also tweeted the statement.
“A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012. Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts,” the statement reads. “While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data. This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion.”
CBS News said that it is now working to find who the intruder was.
Last month, when Attkisson began talking about this, she didn’t make any assumptions on who it might be and the Department of Justice quickly said that it was not them. However, the news comes after the government was criticized for requesting phone records from the Associated Press and investigating Fox News reporter Jeff Rossen.
image: CBS