A team of UBC graduate journalism students investigating e-waste in three countries for an international reporting course have uncovered a previously unknown U.S. security breach in a country listed as one of the top 10 sources of cybercrime globally.
The students purchased hard drives in an open-air market in Ghana for $40 that turned out to contain sensitive information about multimillion-dollar defense contracts between the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and Northrop Grumman, one of the largest military contractors in the U.S.
“We had the drives analyzed after leaving Ghana and were surprised at what we found,” says UBC Associate Professor Peter Klein, an Emmy Award-winning former 60 Minutes producer, who teaches the course. Ghana is listed by the U.S. State Department as one of the top sources of cybercrime worldwide.
The documentary “Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground” airs on Frontline/World’s season finale June 23 and was produced through funding from a $1 million gift to UBC’s Graduate School of Journalism from Mindset Social Innovation Foundation. The documentary investigates the growing problems caused by the global trade in electronic waste.
According to the students’ investigation, the FBI is concerned that companies such as Northrop Grumman may believe that their drives are wiped clean by software before being recycled. Northrop Grumman has acknowledged it is looking into how its hardware and data ended up in Ghana.
“The reason the students discovered this security breach is that they took the time to go see for themselves what’s going on, without pre-conceived ideas of the story, and they did some amazing enterprise reporting,” says Klein, adding that students found credit card numbers and family photos on other hard drives.
Klein, one of three instructors teaching the course (including Canwest Global Visiting Professor Sarah Carter, CBS News Johannesburg Bureau Chief and Adjunct Professor Dan McKinney), says that a “parachute journalist” would not have found this story.
Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground is a pilot student production resulting from a $1 million donation by Vancouver venture philanthropist Alison Lawton of Mindset Social Innovation Foundation to UBC’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Her gift launched Canada’s first International Reporting course to send journalism students abroad to cover important and under-reported issues.
The gift will enable 10 students each year to travel and produce international journalism for major media outlets focusing on broadcast and online content.
Watch a short clip from the documentary: Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground
