Computerworld Falls For RFID Rifle Hoax

from the fact-checking-is-a-waste-of-time dept

Last year Brian McWilliams pulled off a hoax on Computerworld, convincing a reporter that he was a terrorist hacker who had programmed the Slammer worm. When the story came out there was a lot of embarrassment all around, but it appears that Computerworld hasn’t beefed up their fact checking department much. Earlier this month there was some buzz around the blog world about a rifle that would shoot RFID tags into people in order to track them. It wasn’t that difficult (beyond just using a bit of common sense) to realize this was actually a hoax. However, thanks to Politech, we discover that Computerworld has fallen for the hoax completely and written up a whole story about it. I wonder how long the story will last until it’s taken down. Of course, this also raises questions about where Computerworld got the story. Did they pick it up off a blog and then fail to credit them?


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Comments on “Computerworld Falls For RFID Rifle Hoax”

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3 Comments
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