Skip to main content

Climategate: Case Closed

Police in the UK declare their investigation of the infamous email hacking scandal over, but fail to finger the perpetrators of the attack.

Written byBob Grant
| 1 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
1:00

A local police force in the United Kingdom has closed its investigation into the 2009 incident in which private email accounts of researchers at the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) were hacked, and stolen messages between climate researchers were posted on the Internet, causing some to question the integrity of climate science. The Norfolk Constabulary announced Wednesday (July 18) that it did "not have a realistic prospect of identifying the offender or offenders and launching criminal proceedings" within the 3-year statutory window imposed by UK law. Police characterized the incident as a "sophisticated and carefully orchestrated attack on the CRU’s data files, carried out remotely via the Internet."

The so-called Climategate scandal sent shockwaves through the world of climate research, as some parts of the pilfered messages suggested that CRU researchers and their collaborators in the United States and elsewhere were hyping up global warming to incite ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member?
Add The Scientist as a preferred source on Google

Add The Scientist as a preferred Google source to see more of our trusted coverage.

Meet the Author

  • From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.

    View Full Profile

Related Topics

Related articles background image
August 2026 Digest cover
August 2026

Epic Fail: Sea-Monkeys Sabotage Fieldwork

When Barry Hicks set out to photograph thrombolites, thousands of unexpected visitors photobombed his underwater images.

View this Issue
Overcoming Immunotherapy Resistance in Liver Cancer

Overcoming Immunotherapy Resistance in Liver Cancer

Axion Biosystems
Optimizing NGS Library Preparation for Reliable Sequencing Data

Optimizing NGS Library Preparation for Reliable Sequencing Data

Covaris
Using TCR Repertoire Sequencing to Advance Immunology Research

Using TCR Repertoire Sequencing to Advance Immunology Research

Miltenyi
Mapping Clonal Mosaicism in Aging Tissues

Mapping Clonal Mosaicism in Aging Tissues

Mission bio

Products

Sino Biological Logo

Sino Biological Launches SuperNuclease ® Pro with Free Trial Program

Sino Biological Logo

Sino Biological Launches Precisely Characterized Full-Length p-Tau217 Protein to Advance Next-Generation Alzheimer’s Biomarker Assay Development

A photo of a scientist placing the Resipher device on a 96-well plate.

Resipher: Continuous Live-Cell Mitochondrial Respiration Monitoring in 96-Well Plates

Lucid Scientific logo
Conceptual image of ice and frost.

The VAULT100 PRO: Inside the most advanced Stirling Ultracold ULT freezer ever built.

Stirling Ultracold logo