>I was writing a chapter on the NSA's close, and largely hidden, relationship with Silicon Valley. I wrote that Snowden's revelations had damaged US tech companies and their bottom line. Something odd happened. The paragraph I had just written began to self-delete. The cursor moved rapidly from the left, gobbling text. I watched my words vanish. When I tried to close my OpenOffice file the keyboard began flashing and bleeping.
>Over the next few weeks these incidents of remote deletion happened several times. There was no fixed pattern but it tended to occur when I wrote disparagingly of the NSA. All authors expect criticism. But criticism before publication by an anonymous, divine third party is something novel. I began to leave notes for my secret reader. I tried to be polite, but irritation crept in. Once I wrote: "Good morning. I don't mind you reading my manuscript – you're doing so already – but I'd be grateful if you don't delete it. Thank you." There was no reply. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/20/edward-snowden-...
It doesn't seem absurd to me that something like this could be done to intimidate or gaslamp journalists.
That isn't REALLY the governments style. They like to send in the black suits to come have a polite word about your work and remind you of vague potential consequences.
If they're spying on you (and I'm sure they are) then all this does is cost them potential bugs. I'm all for believing that government intimidates journalist (particularly the British and US governments). I am just skeptical they're doing it this specific way.
Also I've had a keyboard with a struck backspace key (after writing a long essay no less). Maybe they're after me too?!
I don't really know the woman's work, but if you claim that hackers wiped your files while you watched your screen racing doing their bidding, I suggest you have another Hollywood screenplay to write.