(The Blaze) A leftist senior reporter for Wired was booted off Twitter for distributing the contents of conservative commentator Matt Walsh’s hacked accounts. Walsh has indicated that a Twitter ban may be the least of the reporter’s concerns.
What’s the background?
It became apparent Tuesday that Walsh had been hacked allegedly by an individual who calls himself “Doomed” through a process called SIM swapping.
According to Microsoft, SIM swapping or SIM hijacking “is a technique used by fraudsters to get control of your phone number. With your phone number, hackers can take advantage of two-factor authentication to gain access to your bank accounts, social media accounts, and more.”
Fraudsters are sometimes able to mine enough data on the victim to convince the victim’s mobile carrier to transfer the victim’s phone number over to a different SIM card. Once this is done, the fraudster can then access the victim’s accounts, by having authentication codes intended for the victim redirected instead to the fraudster’s devices.
Walsh’s private emails, tax information, and financial documents were rifled through. Lewd and offensive tweets were sent via his hacked Twitter account.
TheBlaze reported that Jeremy Boreing, the co-CEO and co-founder of the Daily Wire, said the hack extended to years of personal emails from Walsh.
Ben Shapiro, Walsh’s friend and coworker, noted that in the wake of the hack, the “tolerant and diverse and kind crowd are celebrating, of course.”
Over the past few months, my friend @mattwalshblog has been threatened to the extent that he’s had to have full-time security at his home to protect his family. Now he’s been hacked. The tolerant and diverse and kind crowd are celebrating, of course. pic.twitter.com/JvIrsJyvW4
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 19, 2023
Insult to injury
After announcing in one tweet, “they got into everything,” Cameron wrote, “prove me wrong kids[,] send matt walsh dms to: dell_cameron@wired.com.”
Dell Cameron, a leftist senior reporter for WIRED, used Twitter to solicit stolen information belonging to @MattWalshBlog, who was hacked last night. pic.twitter.com/wsaOWRmPnc
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 19, 2023
Cameron ultimately got in touch with Doomed and penned a piece for Wired Wednesday, in which he described both his conversation with the hacker and the copies of stolen material that Doomed had shared with him.
The hacker told Cameron he was “merely ‘bored’ and felt like ‘stirring up some drama.'” The Wired reporter was evidently keen to aid the criminal in that endeavor.
In the piece, Cameron gleefully shared personal information about Walsh gleaned from the hack and quoted from Walsh’s private correspondence.
On Mastodon, the liberal Twitter knockoff, Cameron wrote, “Thanks for all the well-wishes, folks. And yes, it does feel great.”
He went on to boast: “The Walsh hack was one of our most-read stories today, with more trafficking originating from Twitter than my editor has seen in a year. Streisand is back, baby!”
Twitter lays down the law
In addition to allegedly soliciting hacked materials, Cameron had posted screenshots of hacked materials on Twitter. For this, he was permanently suspended.
Cameron shared his suspension notice on Mastodon. It indicated he had violated Twitter’s rules against distribution of hacked materials.
Unlike the contents of the Hunter Biden laptop, which was abandoned in a computer repair shop and the subject of at least one criminal investigation, Walsh’s accounts were targeted and hacked.
Twitter’s private information policy states, “Sharing someone’s private information online without their permission, sometimes called doxxing, is a breach of their privacy and of the Twitter Rules.”
One of Cameron’s posts of hacked material contained a private phone number.
Additionally, the Twitter private information policy, updated in December 2022, maintains, “You may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorization and permission. We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so.”
Walsh vs. Wired
Following Cameron’s suspension, Wired managing editor Hemal Jhaveri issued a statement, claiming, “Neither Dell’s story nor his Twitter feed contained hacked materials. We do not believe his account violated Twitter’s policy.”
Jhaveri added, “We have not received any further explanation from Twitter and our attempts to reach Twitter’s press office were met with the customary poop emoji. We ask that the account be reinstated, and that Twitter provide an explanation.”
Walsh responded to Wired, characterizing the statement as a “flat out lie.”
“Your reporter directly solicited stolen material from my phone. A Twitter suspension is going to be the least of his problems, and yours,” added Walsh.
Your reporter directly solicited stolen material from my phone. A Twitter suspension is going to be the least of his problems, and yours. https://t.co/WvAut60KJ7
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 20, 2023
