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Vatican computer 'edited Adams page' Vatican computer 'edited Adams page'
(5 days later)
A new internet tool shows how a Vatican computer was used to edit a web entry about Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, American researchers have claimed. A tool designed to trace computers behind Wikipedia changes has linked the Vatican City to an edit in a controversial profile of Gerry Adams.
Wikipedia Scanner developers said they could trace where changes to the online encyclopaedia had been made. The Sinn Fein leader's biography on the online encyclopaedia website was edited from a computer inside the Vatican, according to the tool.
They said news reports alleging Mr Adams's fingerprints and handprints were found on a car used during a double murder in 1971 were removed. The tool, designed by a US computer science student, simplifies identifying who owns computers used by anonymous editors of Wikipedia.
Sinn Fein said it was calling for more stringent regulation of the internet. Computers at other organisations including the CIA, BBC and various governmental bodies around the world have been linked to Wikipedia edits.
The Wikipedia edit removed links to newspaper stories written in 2006 about Mr Adams' fingerprints and handprints, the researchers said. Wikipedia is compiled by its users around the world. Anyone can edit entries on the website.
And a section, titled "Fresh murder question raised", has also been deleted from the online encyclopaedia. However, users do not need to be registered to make changes.
The page now says it is "currently protected from editing until August 17, 2007 or until disputes have been resolved". The Wikipedia scanner tool reads the technical internet addresses of computers recorded in Wikipedia's logs - and matches them to real companies, organisations and government bodies.
Experts say it may not even have been anyone at the Vatican who made the changes. The Vatican appears as one of the well-known organisations listed on the Wikipedia scanner website.
Dr Kevin Curran, a computer expert at the University of Ulster, said: "Either you were using their computer and you are an employee, or you had maliciously hacked, spoofing the IP address and having people believing that you were using their network. Among 88 edits to the site reported to have been made from Vatican City computers is one relating to the controversial biography of Mr Adams.
The anonymous editor appears to have begun deleting an allegation made in a national newspaper that Mr Adams was linked to a car used in a 1970s IRA murder. The newspaper claim has never been substantiated and Mr Adams has always said he was never a member of the IRA.
Wikipedia's managers temporarily banned edits to the profile during August, a procedure used where details are highly disputed or pages have been deliberately "vandalised" by malicious editing.
Dr Kevin Curran, a computer expert at the University of Ulster, told the BBC that it was impossible to know for sure whether the edit to the Gerry Adams page had definitely come from inside the Vatican.
"Either you were using their computer and you are an employee, or you had maliciously hacked, spoofing the IP address [computer's location] and having people believing that you were using their network.
"But nine times out of 10, we can almost say that yes, an employee of that company or organisation has been making the changes.""But nine times out of 10, we can almost say that yes, an employee of that company or organisation has been making the changes."
THE EDITORS' BLOG When BBC staff edit Wikipedia, they should not bring the BBC into disrepute Pete Clifton,BBC head of interactive news Read Pete's comments in full
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopaedia that can be created and edited by anyone.
Wikipedia Scanner trawls a list of 5.3m edits and matches them to the net address of the editor.
As well as computers at the Vatican, the tool reveals that terminals at the CIA were used to edit entries.
It allegedly shows that workers on the agency's computers made edits to the page of Iran's president.
BBC News website users contacted the corporation to point out that the tool also revealed that people inside the BBC had made edits to Wikipedia pages.