Republican Aide Tries to Hire Hackers

Noryungi writes "It seems as though a Republican Communications Director contacted Attrition.org, trying to hire hackers to improve his educational records. I don't know what is his dumbest move: (a) contacting Attrition in the first place, (b) using a real name Yahoo email address or (c) speaking at length about what he needed? Kudos to the Attrition crew for posting the whole email dialogue online! A sample from the conversation: 'Jericho: First, let's be clear. You are soliciting me to break the law and hack into a computer across state lines. That is a federal offense and multiple felonies. Obviously I can't trust anyone and everyone that mails such a request, you might be an FBI agent, right? So, I need three things to make this happen: 1. A picture of a squirrel or pigeon on your campus. One close-up, one with background that shows buildings, a sign, or something to indicate you are standing on the campus. 2. The information I mentioned so I can find the records once I get into the database. 3. Some idea of what I get for all my trouble.'"

Hilarious

[AKAImBatman]

todd... no more.. omfg we are SO busted.. fuck fuck fuck FUCK FUCK
everything was PERFECT until their night noc ran a reverse udp traceroute
back to one of the hosts we had set up after that, straight DOWNHILL.
i've already been called twice by my isp asking about unusual activity,
some other shit about access attempts to a federally monitored system they
have everything in logs including the rot-26 stuff that finally got me
access all goes back to your login sorry i really fucked up BAD

I'm sorry, I keeled over laughing from that part. They really had him strung along with the whole thing. Although, I think he started to catch on after the "bust":

I was getting
serious cold feet and going to tell you to abort until
I saw your last email. To that end, I have spoken
about this to no one as we agreed and I will not speak
of it in the future. As a gesture of good faith, I was
hoping you guys would remove our correspondence from
your web site. Isn't that risky for all of us to have
it up there?

Honestly, the more I see of this stuff, the more I wonder if it isn't time for a congress reform rather than any of the billion other little "reforms" that congress proposes. The original intent of the founding fathers was that regular people would run for office and represent the best interests of their constituents; in the tradition of Cincinnatus [wikipedia.org] They certainly never intended for the "career" politicians we see today. Too much money, organized crime, and generally dispicable people getting into office.

The only question is, what is the best approach to encourage more honorable folks to run for office? Perhaps the terms of office should be limited? That would certainly help discourage careering. Limits on advertising budgets would be good, but difficult to police. Any other ideas?

Re:Hilarious

[drinkypoo]

The only question is, what is the best approach to encourage more honorable folks to run for office? Perhaps the terms of office should be limited? That would certainly help discourage careering. Limits on advertising budgets would be good, but difficult to police. Any other ideas?

Yeah, how about congressional salary caps that bring them down to the median income in the US? That way, if they want a raise, they have to improve the quality of life for all people. Mind you, you have to include the unemployed, so that there's a bunch of zeroes in there to bring the average down - to give them motivation to combat unemployment.

They say that democracies fail when people realize that they can vote themselves entitlements. What about congress? They've been voting themselves entitlements continually, while the minimum wage hasn't kept up with inflation in more than a decade...

Re:

[AKAImBatman]

Yeah, how about congressional salary caps that bring them down to the median income in the US? That way, if they want a raise, they have to improve the quality of life for all people.

That's definitely fair, as long as you allow for various congressional expenses to be charged back to the congressional budget. Expenses such as travel and running their office are too expensive to come out of pocket, and we wouldn't want them running to outside money at the first opportunity. Of course, such an expense account

Re:Hilarious

[Martin Blank]

Most of them have families that remain in their home districts. I'm all for having them work five days a week (and the incoming Congressional leaders seem to be moving in that direction), but I think it's fair to let them see their families on the weekends.

Re:

[PerlDudeXL]

Actually high wages for parliamentarians are meant to make them less inclined to take bribe money (Theory here!!!)

Re:Hilarious

[iluvcapra]

Actually high wages for parliamentarians are meant to make them less inclined to take bribe money

That is a good theory, but in the US every 2 or 6 years our parliamentarians are hit with a multi-million dollar liability, known as a "Campaign." The legislators are up to themselves to raise the money for these, and there are no caps on how much they or their opponent can spend.

If you want to make legislators bribe-proof, you have to make it so that they need for no money in the course of their work, which means paying them well, enough to maintain a domicile in the capital, and strictly capping campaign spending (capping fundraising, and all the exceptions and codicils on that, and the attendant free-expression issues, gets more and more unworkable all the time).

I would say all campaigns should be publicly funded, private donations forbidden, and equal money to the top 3 primary victors, but most Americans consider a campaign donation a form a free speech, and thus beyond legitimate restraint. (I think this is bullshit, but there we are.)

Re:

[drinkypoo]

After all who would want anyone in government who was capable of getting a high paying job. The government should only hire the stupid... OH wait...

I don't think that this is as simple as you think it is. Lots of those people are very smart. They just have agendas that force them to say things that aren't true, which makes people think they are stupid.

Not that some of them aren't.

But more seriously, people are motivated to join Congress by two things, money and power. Control the money and you hel

Re:

[planetmn]

Unemployment is not actually a problem now, under-employment is. If somebody is working part-time, they aren't unemployed. If somebody is doing menial labor because that's the only employment they can find to put food on the table, they aren't unemployed. Even unemployed people aren't considered unemployed unless they are actively looking for employment.

There's a lot of gray between unemployed, and where people ought to be employed. Unfortunately, when you want a quick statistic, it's going to show y

Re:

[JasonKChapman]

The only question is, what is the best approach to encourage more honorable folks to run for office?

That's easy. Make it a more honorable calling. Lessen the position's power and profitability, and the sharks will find other waters in which to swim, leaving room for the civic-minded Mr. Smiths. Sadly, that's never going to happen. Tyrants don't yield power willingly.

In the old days, people had to hire armies and intimidate peasants in order to be major-league thugs with their own little fiefdoms. Now they

Approval voting

[b0s0z0ku]

Any other ideas?

Yep, approval voting [wikipedia.org], so that voters can select the dark-horse candidate without feeling that their votes are going to waste.

-b.

Re:

[Peyna]

The original intent of the founding fathers was that regular people would run for office and represent the best interests of their constituents

That's why the common folk were all sitting in Philadelphia writing the Constitution, right?

It's easy

[rsilvergun]

First, require all funds be donated by individuals. No more corporate slush funds. Next, make it illegal to donate to a candidate you can't vote for. No more buying off 51% of Congress. Finally, limit what can be donated by an individual to something the a person making the median income could afford (a couple of grand, adjust for inflation as needed). Toss in some really nasty penalties for violating these crimes. Problem solved.

Yeah, it'll never happen, but it's a nice though.

Re:

[Goldsmith]

My dad was a politician, and while I think career politicians are a big problem, actually being in politics convinced him it's not. His argument is that like anything else, politics takes some time to learn. Thus, you will always have people with more experience than others, and the ability of these more experienced politicians is much greater than that of the rookies. The end result is that people with new representatives are not represented as well as those with seasoned representatives.

My opinion is t

Re:

[AKAImBatman]

My opinion is that the old politicians simply push around the rookies. He is absolutely right that rookie politicians just can't get as much done.

Which is not such a bad thing. The market already has plenty of solutions, checks, and balances for just about every ill facing our country. When congress gets involved, all they do is pass laws that f**k up the solutions already in place.

Ever play SimCity? Did you ever notice that things seem to go best when you're not trying to make major changes to your city ev

Re:Hilarious

[Dun Malg]

The original intent of the founding fathers was that regular people would run for office and represent the best interests of their constituents

Perhaps this is testament to what regular people are truly like.

Unfortunately, I think you've hit the nail on the head. The Founding Fathers idea of Cincinnatus style service was based on the premise that those volunteering to manage government for short times were intelligent, competent folks who had something better to do. The idea was that they'd do it out of a sense of civic duty, then return to their much more profitable and pleasant private ventures. Nowadays, government is full of a certain type of enthusiastic, hardworking, but not necessarily particularly smart sort of person who's willing to "pay his dues". He works as an Underpaid Toady to a Senator or what have you, until he can muster the political capital to get enough of the slugs already in power to back him for a shot at the "big leagues". They're people who go into government because they think they know how things should be run. They're scum.

Re:

[nuzak]

You're dethppppicable!

Thuffering Thuccotash ... sorry, different character.

Republican Aide?

[Ninjaesque One]

Is he trying to improve his own records? Isn't this just a case of an idiot who tries to get people to hack their educational stuff for them? I mean, it probably will lead to a congressional scandal, but it doesn't really have much to do with the aide's aide-ness or republican-ness.

Re:Republican Aide?

[pla]

but it doesn't really have much to do with the aide's aide-ness or republican-ness.

If a guy gets busted for BBQ'ing a bald eagle, would it make it more, or less, of a story if he worked for PETA?

Although the last 12 years have made the whole concept into something of a joke, the Republicans tout themselves as the "party of reform". And we just keep seeing scandal after unethical scandal from them.

No worries, though, in another 12 years we can say the same thing about the Democrats, who apparently didn't learn from the Republicans error and now want to position themselves as the Party-O'-Reform. But, having the same complete and utter lack of ethics as all politicians, they'll start making the same egotistical blunders as the Republicans did, once they take their new seats in January.


Meet the new boss...

Re:

[SageLikeFool]

the Republicans tout themselves as the "party of reform".

Give the Guy a break - he was just trying to "reform" his grades.

Re:

[toddhisattva]

When you read about a violent crime, you're usually safe in assuming the criminal was a Democrat.

As a hard-core liberal, I agree

[spun]

I'm as liberal as they come: anarcho-syndicalist, it doesn't get more hardcore leftist than that. Normally I am all for anything that makes the Republicans look bad, but this is just dumb. It's like how news stations only mention the race of an alleged criminal if they are non-white. Who cares what race a murderer is, or what party a doofus belongs too? What's that got to do with anything?

Until I read the summary, I was hoping this was some kind of political hack attempt that would put another big black eye on the Repugnicans, but no such luck, it's just some dumbass trying to get his grades changed. The story is funny enough to warrant being on Slashdot's front page without mentioning the word "Republican" at all.

Re:As a hard-core liberal, I agree

[dircha]

"I'm as liberal as they come: anarcho-syndicalist, it doesn't get more hardcore leftist than that."

Hoho! The anarcho-communists spit in your general direction, bourgeoisie scum!

Re:As a hard-core liberal, I agree

[spun]

Spitting is fine, just as long as there aren't any ice picks involved...

Re:Republican Aide?

[nathanh]

Is he trying to improve his own records? Isn't this just a case of an idiot who tries to get people to hack their educational stuff for them? I mean, it probably will lead to a congressional scandal, but it doesn't really have much to do with the aide's aide-ness or republican-ness.

Don't worry. When Fox News reports this story the closed captioning will reveal he's become a Democrat overnight.

I only wish I were joking.

Re:

[Dachannien]

Okay, first you pin this sort of behavior on "ambitious, young-republican types". Then you cite a bunch of names - "Rove, Gannon, DeLay, A[]bramoff" - who don't actually fit that mold, all of them being well-established, somewhat aged participants in the political arena. And finally, you ignore the fact that blind ambition easily crosses partisan boundaries, and scandal has been no stranger to Democrats as well as Republicans.

Mentioning this guy's Republican-ness in the OP's title was nothing more than a

Pure comedy gold.

[SatanicPuppy]

It's like reading about the guy who tried to hire an undercover cop to kill his wife...The poor joker is so obviously clueless, but trying to play it down. Every time he starts asking real questions, they just bury him in bs, and he buys it...It's so obvious they're screwing with him. At one point they get him to send 'em some snapshots of local squirrels.

An entertaining read.

The Real Mystery Is...

[CheeseburgerBrown]

The real mystery is how somebody this sharp, informed and educated managed to do so badly in college. I mean, the guy's obviously got street smarts and book smarts.

Re:

[sbaker]

The real mystery is how somebody this sharp, informed and educated managed to do so badly in college. I mean, the guy's obviously got street smarts and book smarts.

You are forgetting that he's a communications director - you couldn't possibly expect him to understand how email and public forums work.

Re:

[jdgeorge]

The real mystery is how somebody this sharp, informed and educated managed to do so badly in college. I mean, the guy's obviously got street smarts and book smarts.

Ah, so well put. If I had mod points, I wouldn't be sure whether I should give you a "Funny" or an "Insightful".

(Remarkably, it appears that some of the folks who responded to your post may also fit the description you provided. How proud I am to be a member of such an intellectually gifted community.)

Re:

[jafac]

Well, he was a Republican, so that means while he was in college, (which he paid for, himself), he was also working two jobs, getting paid less than minimum wage, all while serving in the military. Doesn't leave much time for studies.

A friend of ours needs to have his grades revised

[JavaScrybe]

Am I the only one reminded of a very good independant british computer game [uplink.co.uk]?

Of course, you'd have to bounce your connexion through InterNIC, hack into the International Academic Database, disable the proxy and clear your logs afterwards... :D

Re:A friend of ours needs to have his grades revis

[Mysticalfruit]

It would have been cooler if they'd sent this knucklehead screenshots of them doing the "hack" and it be from Uplink.
Then it would have been complete!

Re:

[Fallen Kell]

LOL... that would have been funny. Man, now I need to install that game again. I havn't played it in a while (last time was when they added the patch to hack networks, not just systems).

Don't mess with TCU network security!

[rk]

Those guys even logged lyger's rot-26 hack!

I tell people all the time though that double rot-13 is much harder to detect than rot-26.

Re:

[gt_mattex]

I tell people all the time though that double rot-13 is much harder to detect than rot-26.

Ernyyl? V guvax ebg guvegrra vf fhssvpvrag. Cresbezvat n qbhoyr ebg guvegrra whfg qrpelcgf vg.

You've gotta read the entire email trail!

[sbaker]

It's just hilarious - this guy is supposed to be a Republican Communications Director?! A Communications Director didn't realise he was posting to a public site using his real name?! Yikes!

When they tell him that the Feds may have busted the operation by cracking their rot-26 encryption I nearly choked on my breakfast (cold pizza of course)! This is a classic.

On one of the linked sites, the guy is claiming that he was 'under the influence' for the whole exchange and is 'seeking treatment'. So he's claiming he was blind drunk for the entire two weeks? Wow - the Republicans either have better parties than I ever suspected - or they truly are drowning their sorrows after recent election defeats!

He needs to go to jail for a few years.

Re:You've gotta read the entire email trail!

[b0s0z0ku]

He needs to go to jail for a few years.

"Few years" - that's a bit harsh considering nothing illegal was actually accomplished. Keep in mind that for a lot of violent crimes short of murder, the prison time isn't even a "few years." More like *a* year. The best punishment is exposing this guy for a fraud and making sure that he'll lose his job and be a laughingstock boob.

One more thing: who's to say that this was actually him not a prank designed to discredit the guy? It's not like they check ID before you surf the 'net. Maybe the article has more info, but it's currently slashdotted!

-b.

Yet another. . .

[smooth wombat]

shining example of the intelligence of people in my party. It's not bad enough we have this yahoo [washingtonpost.com] blocking phones to Democratic numbers used for providing people rides to polls on election day, or this putz [federalnewsradio.com] who embezzled state money, let alone the chimp in charge who has flip-flopped every which way on Iraq, but now this incompetent asshole.

I know that Sandy Berger (just so no one thinks I'm biased) is a real moron but come on, how much lack of intelligence does one have to have to think that they could get away with this?

Re:Yet another. . .

[t0rkm3]

Hrmmm...

Politicians are politicians. Tis part of what makes me tire of our system. Remember the Dem that had the Nat'l Guard load up his private stuff during Katrina, asking them to defer food, troop, and rescue transport?

Lord Acton was right, will be right... forever.

That's why I would traditionally vote for Republicans, at least they are/were for smaller federal gov't more state/local control. However, this last group has hosed that whole concept up.

Professional politicians are power hungry sociopaths. How do we solve that problem?

Re:Yet another. . .

[funwithBSD]

You forgot this one:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/1/24 /213349.shtml [newsmax.com]

Slashing tires to keep people from voting.

Or John Murtha:

http://news.netscape.com/story/2006/11/15/democrat ic-culture-of-corruption-john-murtha-bribe-video [netscape.com]

Or William Jefferson:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/21/jefferson.s earch/ [cnn.com]

Or Teddy Kennedy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick [wikipedia.org]

Or "Voted for the War before I voted against it" :

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/29/politics /main646435.shtml [cbsnews.com]

Or Hiz Honor,Richard Daley:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J._Daley [wikipedia.org]

Or Boss Tweed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_Tweed [wikipedia.org]

Please, politicians by default are dishonest, not just Republicans. So just remember who's dog food you are eating when shilling for one side or the other.

Re:Yet another. . .

[slamb]

Oh, please. Does Kerry's "I voted for the war before I voted against it" really belong in that list? Keep in mind that if "inarticulate moments" are in the same league as bribery, voter suppression, and manslaughter (the other items on your list), Bush is a much worse president than I ever realized... a few examples [about.com].

Please, politicians by default are dishonest, not just Republicans. So just remember who's dog food you are eating when shilling for one side or the other.

You're as much in denial as those who claim there's no corruption at all, and your beliefs are just as harmful. There's been political corruption in all parties throughout history, but not all politicians are corrupt, and not all parties are equal. Voters have recently realized that they can exert control by voting out the more corrupt party. Maybe in 20 years the Republican party will reform and the Democratic party will regress. Until then, I'm voting for Democrats.

As a Montanan...

[genessy]

...I'm just proud my representative (or his aide) knew about the Interweb! ;)

You guys will believe anything...

[zguru]

This is so funny. You guys will believe anything posted on the Internet! :)

West Wing Obligatory

[hellfire]

This reminds me of a Hilarious West Wing scene:

[CJ is mad at Josh for posting to the message board of a Josh Lyman fansite]
C.J. Cregg: If you ever post anything on that website again, I will shove a motherboard so far up your ass... What?
Josh Lyman: You DO know I outrank you, right?
C.J. Cregg: SO FAR UP YOUR ASS...

B people hire C people, and so on down the chain..

[Animats]

There's a classic comment that A people hire A people, but B people hire C people. Bush has not exactly been known for great job appointments. If you actually follow his appointments, it's embarrassing, even if you're a Republican. They're loyal, but often not very good. (It's not just that lightweight at FEMA, "Mr. Torture" at Justice, and the economic advisers from Enron; there's a long, painful list of bad high level hires.)

Once you get the institutional idea that each level hires dumber people below them, a few steps down the food chain, people like this turkey are getting jobs.

Bush's views

[ctid]

"Heckuva job, Schriby!"

Punishment, Web 2.0 style

[SnappingTurtle]

Todd's punishment is going to be uniquely modern... or will it?

The punishment is that this is going to go viral. It's just too darn interesting seeing people doing something they shouldn't. For the rest of his life people will be reading about this. It's not yet mentioned in Denny Rehberg's Wikipedia page [wikipedia.org], but it will. Todd will probably get his own Wikipedia page [wikipedia.org] [dead link as of this moment but we'll see how long that lasts]. There will probably be a Snopes article too.

In other words, Todd will be publicy humiliated. It'll be like having to wear a big red letter...

extension of school cheating

[peter303]

The aide was pretty young. Prossibly saw a loty cheating in school and just carried it into work life. In the real world you get caught more of the time.

RFC 1149

[TranscendentalAnarch]

type of access required to access the systems (internet? LAN? dialup? carrier pigeon?)

I'm going to submit an addendum to RFC 1149 requesting that the pigeons be trained to release their excrement on moronic, unsuspecting members of congress during transmission.

Predictable update on this story

[netbuzz]

Press aide who tried to hire hackers has been fired.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1001 5 [networkworld.com]

Re:

[RebornData]

Umm, pretty much everything that came from the attrition.org side is a joke. They were yanking this guy's chain.

-R

Re:

[WhiplashII]

I take extreme offense that you have a (disparaging/humorous) word for Repugs but not for Demos? Demons? D-craps?

Honestly, what is the propper slur to use here, anyway?

Re:What the?

[jimstapleton]

Everyone knows that squirrels and pigeons have a protection from FBI spell cast on them, and cannot be photographed or photoshopped by FBI agents or those in collusion with them.

Re:What the?

[ArcherB]

Everyone knows that squirrels and pigeons have a protection from FBI spell cast on them, and cannot be photographed or photoshopped by FBI agents or those in collusion with them.

Actually, their inability to be photoshopped has nothing to do with it. Pigeons are protected under whistle-blower laws.

Re:

[jimstapleton]

that doesn't explain the squirrels

Re:What the?

[A nonymous Coward]

The squirrel requirement eliminates the nuts.

Nevermind, jokes on me I guess

[suso]

I read the email correspondence before reading the network world article. They were just leading him on.

Mirror

[suso]

To make up for that, I've created a mirror:

http://suso.suso.org/attrition1.html [suso.org]
http://suso.suso.org/attrition2.html [suso.org] (Page 2)

Re:What the?

[Mr. Flibble]

Um, I'm sure I won't be the only one to ask this. But how in the hell does this prove that you are not the FBI, Secret Service, Police or whoever? Even if he was on campus at the time, I'm sure any authority that you'd want to fear could get to wherever they needed to be to take that picture in the same day that he asks for it.

In case you are wondering, what they are doing is a variant of the 419 eater [419eater.com] technique. They had no intent of following through, but they had every intent of making the guy look like a fool as they strung him along.

Re:

[xx01dk]

Holy cow. This technique actually has a name.... and you knew what it was... I'm in complete awe over here.

(not a troll, simply poking fun) :)

Re:

[budgenator]

A name, hell it's practically an official internet sport! Some people live for a 419 Email, and a chance to play! The idea is to scam the scammer into performing stupid and demeaning tasks, you start slow, build them up.

Re:What the?

[AKAImBatman]

Um, I'm sure I won't be the only one to ask this. But how in the hell does this prove that you are not the FBI, Secret Service, Police or whoever?

They were just messing with him. They were playing on the whole "hacker movie" stereotypes of being able to do anything with even the slightest bit of information*. The request to get a sign or buildings in the background was to solidify the idea that they wanted this information for verification purposes. They probably wanted him to believe they could zoom in from a live satellite and see the location he photographed.

They continued to jerk his chain with email exchanges like this one:

Have had a chance to set up a couple of
IDS/IPS evasion bots, perimeter scanning came up clean. Small SQL
injection issue merged with XSS shows that the backend database may be
either 768-bit encrypted or a simple 3DES matter, but a little more time
should take care of that issue. Once the tables are writable to sa,
should be ready to jump in and jump out with no problem. One of their
systems caught an early sniff, but was shut down with a smurf.

It sounds good (lots'o techno-jargon), but it's obviously nonsense to anyone who knows better.

* I don't watch 24, but I've heard some rather amusing takes on their entire "hacker" philosophy. In particular, they seem to be able to do the impossible without blinking an eye, just by wrapping it up in some techno-babble that's intended to sound good to the average joe.

Re:

[Dun Malg]

I don't watch 24, but I've heard some rather amusing takes on their entire "hacker" philosophy. In particular, they seem to be able to do the impossible without blinking an eye, just by wrapping it up in some techno-babble that's intended to sound good to the average joe.

It's exactly the same technique as Star Trek:TNG technobabble, where plausible-sounding nonsense is strung together to magically create the "particle of the week"/Polarity Reversal that will, in classic deus ex machina form, save the day. They use a more toned-down (but no less impossible) form of the same thing on CSI. I've dealt with many TV writers. They're largely technologically illiterate. It's all they can do to get their PowerBooks to turn on.

Re:

[PitaBred]

"Toned down"? They pulled audio off of a ceramic freakin' pot [csifiles.com] in an episode. There isn't anything worthwhile in CSI if you don't turn off your "I know what it's like to live in the real world" sense.

Re:What the?

[Em Adespoton]

I take it you missed the MythBusters episode where they successfully recorded audio on to a clay pot using nothing but a turntable, the pot and some straw?

Of course, the length of the audio was less than 1 second (the time it takes to rotate the pot once) but hey...

Re:

[SatanicPuppy]

It's like the stuff you see on 419 Eater [419eater.com] where they convince the scammers to send in photos of themselves looking stupid.

Anyone with a half a clue would have twigged to it...The request is so clearly useless.

Re:

[eln]

People will go to extraordinary lengths to suspend their own disbelief if they think there's going to be a big payout at the end. This explains not only why the 419eater counter-scams work, but also why the 419 scams themselves work.

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

Obviously they were leading him on. But if he completed such a request, it would show that he was serious. That would go a long way in proving he had intent to commit a crime.

Re:

[neoform]

Nah, the rot-26 takes the cake.

It's just like rot-13, but twice as secure!

Re:

[Dr Caleb]

"Nah, the rot-26 takes the cake."

In Soviet Russia, we use only ROT-33.

Re:

[niceone]

Um, I'm sure I won't be the only one to ask this. But how in the hell does this prove that you are not the FBI, Secret Service, Police or whoever? Even if he was on campus at the time, I'm sure any authority that you'd want to fear could get to wherever they needed to be to take that picture in the same day that he asks for it.

Both squirrels and pigeons have a genetic fear of authority and an inate ability to spot federal agents. Hence by examining the expressions on their faces, someone experienced in such

Re:This begs the question

[SatanicPuppy]

They had the whole exchange posted for a while, but it was only recently that anyone in the media bothered to track down the actual guy.

Re:

[Frosty Piss]

They had the whole exchange posted for a while...

Server must be running on a box in someone's bedroom or something, 'cuz it's off line now... And what's with having the domain registered at NetSol? I guess pretentious "security researchers" need their domain registered with equally pretentious domain registrars... Oh yeah, we got some quality hackers, er, I mean "security researchers" here!

Re:

[Phroggy]

Server must be running on a box in someone's bedroom or something, 'cuz it's off line now... And what's with having the domain registered at NetSol? I guess pretentious "security researchers" need their domain registered with equally pretentious domain registrars... Oh yeah, we got some quality hackers, er, I mean "security researchers" here!

Attrition.org has been around since long before multiple .com registrars existed. I still have a domain hosted with Network Solutions myself for the same reason (altho

No, it doesn't

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Please learn what Begging the Question [skepdic.com] means.

Re:

[Abcd1234]

Please remember that the english language changes with time. While proscriptive pedants like to point out how the phrase "begging the question" was previously used, that's hardly relevant today.

Re:

[Abcd1234]

Begging the question is a logical fallacy

To you. Meanwhile, to a vast majority of the rest of the english speaking world, it means something different. The language has changed. Get over it and move on.

Re:

[ajlitt]

How exactly is this article partisan? You could substitute "Intern for Google" for the aide and the results would be the same.

Re:Slashdot's petty partisanship.

[mollog]

I'm not surprised that yet another Republican is violating moral and legal standards to improve his/her position. I'm glad that someone outed this prick. I don't necessarily see this as an attack on Republicans on a partisan basis, but if you have a group that has a long and varied history of this sort of behavior, and you bring it up yet again, it can look partisan. I vote for honorable Republicans, so I'm not some kind of rabid partisan. I'm not impressed with the way Democrats conduct campaigns; it's half-assed, but I tend to prefer voting for Democrats.

We see Democratic boobs do all sorts of stupid, venal stuff. But when it comes to craven, cynical behavior, you have to hand it to the Republican for the no-holds-barred, down-and-dirty politicking.

Keep up the pressure on the bad guys.

Re:

[ArcherB]

I think the point the GP was making is that when a Republican does something, even if he's just an aide and it has nothing to do with his politics or whoever he is an aide for, he is referred to as a "Republican aide". When a democrat does something, their party affiliation is rarely mentioned, and if it is, it's buried within the story. Take a look at this [cnn.com] story at CNN. The title is, "Affidavit: $90,000 found in congressman's freezer". His party affiliation is not listed until the second paragraph. Th

Re:

[Achromatic1978]

when a Republican does something, even if he's just an aide and it has nothing to do with his politics or whoever he is an aide for, he is referred to as a "Republican aide". When a democrat does something, their party affiliation is rarely mentioned

Unless he's a Republican Congressman hitting up underage teenage boys for information on their masturbatory habits, then he's referred to as a "Democrat"...

Re:

[Dan Slotman]

Corruption should always be condemned. It disturbs me that you are willing to ignore the actions involved because of partisanship. That said, I'd say this posting has less to due with politics than with technological naivety. Basically it was posted so that we can all have a good laugh at the unfortunate victim.

Re:

[Rotten168]

C'mon, first off Slashdot is a very partisan website... anyone with any intelligence and perception whatsoever will realize this. But the article author mentioned this guy was Republican for one reason only, to score partisan points. Every article posted is slanted, biased, and an utter joke. And don't get me started on that idiot kdawson.

And yet, here you are.

[FatSean]

Are you fighting the good fight? Did the 'Free Republic' wackos organize you?

I wonder why there aren't any good technology sites with a non-liberal bias....you'd think the free market would 'provide' one if there were enough no-liberal technical people...

Re:Slashdot's petty partisanship.

[plantman-the-womb-st]

Partisan or not, the fact remains thus. The title and the summary say nothing about anything political save to mention the man in question is a republican aide. Because he __is__ a republican aide. Did the title or the summary go on about how this is typical republican behavior? Nope. Several comments did, but that's not the summary or title is it? Admittedly it would be just as valid to call him a congressional aide. But I fail to see the noting of a job title as partisan.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Why is Slashdot becoming involved in all this petty partisan tit for tat stuff? They are in danger of losing their already questionable reputation.

First of all, slashdot has to protect only one reputation: "news for nerds". Now, granted, lots of what is posted on slashdot is neither news nor for nerds, but THIS story is. It's hilarious.

Second, slashdot isn't making this a partisan issue. The fact that the guy works for the republican party is what makes this a partisan issue. In this case slashdot is

Re:

[spun]

Bonch is a known troll, he was trolling there so I was trolling him back. As he responded in a reasonable manner, I won't do it again. I love how Repuglicans have people like Anne Coulter on their side spewing venom, and when called on it they claim it was only a joke, but when Libs fight back, you accuse us of being mean-spirited. Seems like a double standard to me...

Re:

[just_another_sean]

Some things are just funny. Laugh.

Re:

[Rotten168]

Like 90% of all Slashdot "memes" it's not funny... like "we welcome our masters", "soviet russia", etc.

Re:

[just_another_sean]

Then why are you here?

Re:posting the emails was illegal and unproductive

[Rob T Firefly]

IANAL, but if I understand correctly, either party of a two-way communication can generally make them public unless it's declared private by some sort of legal notice (terms of use, legal disclaimers in the sigs, or something.) Since Attrition is a publicly available website, and maintainer of all those public Infosec mailing lists, it's probably not legally reasonable for this guy to assume his emails would be kept private. After all, he didn't even have any real idea who the person was he contacted, much less have a nondisclosure agreement with him.

Re:

[Tweekster]

You have absolutely no expectation for the average person to keep your communication a secret. They are the reciepent and can now do whatever they feel like unless they are bound by certain cases of privilege (lawyers for instance), or signed an NDA.

Just telling them they cant disclose it is not enough, they must acknowledge they wont before you tell them the information

Re:posting the emails was irrelevant and funny

[qwijibo]

Are you really afraid of a judicial system that barely works? You think someone who tries (unsuccessfully) to commit some retarded crime is going to sue over someone revealing it? Good luck with that.

If they had reported this promptly to the FBI, it would have had the same result.

The chances of an investigation: 0 (retarded things happen everyday)
The chances of a fair investigation: 0 (fairness is irrelevant)
The chances of a trial: 0 (no crime, no charges, no trial)
The chances of a fair trial: 0 (In the U

Re:

[shrdlu]

The folks at attrition have *always* had a policy of posting email to them. It's usually a great read (and this one started back in September, ISTR). It was only when Mr. Bright Guy was outed as a congressional aide that it hit the big time.

I love the smell of napalm in December.

Re:

[vertinox]

IANAL, but it isn't illegal for someone to post information about your illegal activity you had during a conversation.

Even if your lawyer or doctor (who has confidential laws on their side) decides to give information to the authorities they can.

The way confidentiality laws work is that the authorities or police can't force other parties you've entered into disclosure agreements (such as your lawyer) to give them incriminating evidence.

Even if you email me and say "The following is private information not t

Re:

[Sigma 7]

It was a private communication and one could (probably) argue he had a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Instead of attrition.org, let's assume the senator contacted a "hacker" group either composed of, or infiltrated by government agents. Such a "reasonable expectation of privacy" does not protect against a criminal conviction.

Likewise, any upstanding citizen would forward such letters to the local police department.

Why should a reasonable expectation of privacy prevent the public posting of criminal soli

Re:

[valdezjuan]

Can you site a case, or an actual law that prohibits forwarding of emails?

Though I have only found one http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_11.php#00501 7 [eff.org]article that is directly on point (after a quick google search). The article specifically mentions a 2006 reversal by the California Supreme Court, (original case Barrett v. Rosenthal http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Barrett_v_Rosenthal /ruling.pdf [eff.org]) which upholds that blogs, websites, listservs, etc. are protected under the Communications Decency Act (CDA 1

Re:Would we be reading this if he were a democrat?

[Abcd1234]

It's simple:

a) The republican party claims to be the party of morality and "family values".
b) There's been a rash of republican political gaffs in the last few months which, in the face of 'a', are really pretty funny.

So laugh, ffs. 'cuz, lets face it... it really is funny.

Re:Would we be reading this if he were a democrat?

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

There are idiots on both sides of the aisle.

This is information-free. If 95% of Republicans were idiots and 5% of Democrats were idiots it'd still be correct to say "There are idiots on both sides of the aisle", so it doesn't tell you anything useful.

The question isn't whether or not there are idiots on one side or the other. The question is how many idiots there are on one side or the other, to what extent are those idiots informing policy and decision making, and most of all, how many of those idiots happen to be President right now.

Me am Republican! Me am victim of everybody!

[MS-06FZ]

You have my deepest condolences. I know that the Republican Party is a persecuted minority these days: Nobody gives the poor, innocent Republicans a fair shake. Everyone else in the world hates God and America and, therefore, Republicans as well. And there's the vast conspiracies, the lynchings, and all the inequities and indignities Republicans must suffer for no other reason than following the divine hand of God - appointed by holy power and elected by a clear majority choice. Oh, woe be the poor Republican, for he is a poor, battered victim of a world which is against him for no good reason at all.

This guy made Slashdot because he was especially stupid, not simply because he was caught, and not because he was a Republican. He tried to commit a crime, but went about it in a very idiotic way - made contact with someone he had no logical reason to trust and requested an illegal job, discussed details that were way out of his depth and technical expertise, freely gave away his personal information, went outside to take a picture of some pigeons (I guess to prove that he is one himself) - the whole story just shows an incredible lack of intelligence and sophistication - any kind of subtlety or careful discretion in how he sought criminal help - and he got completely suckered as a result. A tale like this is great "News For Nerds" fodder - dope who knows nothing about computers tries to contract for a system intrusion goes in over his head with someone who actually knows a thing or two, and gets exposed.

Stealing national security documents isn't "News for Nerds", it's just "News". Go watch some Fox News if you want to see that story, I'm sure they'll rattle their sabers and go on about it for weeks - because they are not part of the conspiracy. They are not biased. They will give you the straight story, just the facts, and let you draw your own conclusion. England Prevails!