Categories: OLD Media Moves

USA Today tech columnist gets hacked during flight

Steven Petrow, who writes a column for USA Today on technology, writes about how he was hacked during a recent flight while working on a column about why the FBI wants Apple to hack into a phone.

Petrow writes, “That’s what my privacy-busting stranger had read. Back to my conversation:

“‘That’s how I know you’re interested in the Apple story,’ he continued. ‘Imagine if you had been doing a financial transaction. What if you were making a date to see a whore?’ My mind raced: What about my health records? My legal documents? My Facebook messages?

“And then the kicker:

“‘That’s why this story is so important to everyone,’ he told me. ‘It’s about everyone’s privacy.’

“Then he headed down the escalator and I headed out the front door. I may have been wearing my jacket, but I felt as exposed as if I’d been stark naked.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.