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Who's Behind the 'Reopen' Domain Surge? (krebsonsecurity.com) 384

Inspired by a thread on Reddit, KrebsOnSecurity has been investigating possible incidences of state-led astroturfing to put pressure on U.S. states to ease, end, or reduce the extent of coronavirus lockdowns. From the article: The Reddit discussion focused on a handful of new domains -- including reopenmn.com, reopenpa.com, and reopenva.com -- that appeared to be tied to various gun rights groups in those states. Their registrations have roughly coincided with contemporaneous demonstrations in Minnesota, California and Tennessee where people showed up to protest quarantine restrictions over the past few days. Suspecting that these were but a subset of a larger corpus of similar domains registered for every state in the union, KrebsOnSecurity ran a domain search report at DomainTools [an advertiser on this site], requesting any and all domains registered in the past month that begin with "reopen" and end in ".com." That lookup returned approximately 150 domains; in addition to those named after the individual 50 states, some of the domains refer to large American cities or counties, and others to more general concepts, such as "reopeningchurch.com" or "reopenamericanbusiness.com." Many of the domains are still dormant, leading to parked pages and registration records obscured behind privacy protection services. But a review of other details about these domains suggests a majority of them are tied to various gun rights groups, state Republican Party organizations, and conservative think tanks, religious and advocacy groups. KrebsOnSecurity set up a Google spreadsheet documenting much of the domain information sourced in the story.

Someone by the name of Michael Murphy told Mother Jones in an interview that they registered thousands of dollars worth of "reopen" and "liberate" domains to keep them out of the hands of people trying to organize protests. KrebsOnSecurity has not been able to validate this report, but did note that the registrant name Michael Murphy was associated with more than 50 reopen domains that were registered within an hour of each other on April 17 -- between 3:25 p.m. ET and 4:43 ET.
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Who's Behind the 'Reopen' Domain Surge?

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  • by noobiedoobiedo ( 6194604 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @07:11PM (#59974142)
    "Who's Behind the 'Reopen' Domain Surge?" -- The tons of Americans trapped at home with nothing to do. That'd be my first guess.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      noobiedoobiedo ( 6194604 )

      Registered 2020-03-08T17:40:17Z
      Reopening America; CyberAxxess LLC, PhotoVision Enterprises LLC, 3515 N. Bronco St, Las Vegas
      https://www.facebook.com/reope... [facebook.com]

    • Nothing to do? Won't somebody think of pornhub!

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      Or the Russians again?

      They helped to get Trump elected in 2016 [politico.com].

      The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

      The intelligence community’s initial January 2017 assessment of Moscow’s influence campaign included “specific intelligence reporting to support the assessment that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Russian government demonstrated a preference for candidate Trump,” the committee’s report says. The panel also found “specific intelligence” to support the conclusion that Putin “approved and directed aspects” of the Kremlin’s interference efforts.

      Maybe they're doing it again.

    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Typical hoarding, the see the protest and buy up all associated web sites because they will be hot for a few months, loads of crap advertising, a just a rebranded existing web site, all cheap and easy. Hoarding domain names is nothing new and they hoarders will take up every variant including spelling mistakes, it's cheap, why not. I was just in my local supermarket, there was a shortage of flour as hoarders bought it all up and now there a ballets of large bags of flour in the middle of the store because n

  • by rmdingler ( 1955220 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @07:16PM (#59974160) Journal

    So be it.

    I would much rather suffer a bit more on the current timeline, perhaps another four weeks (Metric = 28 days, for our friends in virtually every other nation) to run the viruses' virulence into the summer ground, than to reopen prematurely, weather new outbreak infections aka New Amsterdam, and be forced to close again until the peak is reached, or past.

    My 2 cents and ymmv.

    • I'm sure there are more things that could be done now to find jobs for people. Some local services for example seem to be cutting back at a time when there are jobs that can be done with little or no contact with other humans. I just read in the paper that they were cutting back on garbage collection for example. There are plenty of potholes to repair around here. Some businesses are just rushed off their feet, give them some help to hire more people even if it would be otherwise uneconomical to do so.
    • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @11:08PM (#59974806) Homepage Journal

      Acquired herd immunity will only kick in when the number of people who've been infected is 15x what it is now -- and that's accounting for the disparity between reported cases and actual infections. As for seasonality, there's no evidence of that. We can't trust to nature because nature's path out of this for us would be catastrophic. Our fate is in our own hands.

      So for the time being we need the shutdowns. The shutdowns accomplish two things: they reduce the rate of transmission, and they buy us time in which to prepare for opening up. If they reduce the transmission rate enough the size of the problem shrinks, and preparing for opening is easier.

      South Korea managed to get through this without shutting down their economy, but they got a much earlier and more successful start. The problem with being late of the starting block is that our preparations are playing catch up with the epidemic. More and more ventilators, masks, gloves, and test kits are pouring into the system in increasing, but each week's increase in supplies meets and even larger increase in virus.

      It is absolutely critical we halt the growth of the epidemic before we try anything else. When the cases stop growing, the supplies and equipment can catch up.

  • by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @07:26PM (#59974198) Journal
    I have several friends that are part of this. They have groups on FB, and are grabbing domains. Yes, they are far righties. Nice folks, but paranoid as hell.
    What I find interesting is that I have suggested several times that Colorado should ALLOW any business to open PROVIDED :
    1) the owner and/or executives must work on-site and directly with customers as well
    2) All those that go to work, including the owner/executives, must agree legally, that they will NOT use any EMS, hospital resources for covid. Obviously, if they have a non-covid item, then go ahead. BUT, if they catch covid, they would be on their own.

    Needless to say, both of these 2 were screaming about the idea, and were all for opening businesses (legal rights), but not wanting to take responsibility for their actions.

    If they only understood the constitution and even the founders, such as Thomas Jefferson, they would realize what fools they are.

    A strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means.

    Thomas Jefferson.

    • by dwywit ( 1109409 )

      Now you've done it - you've quoted one of the founding fathers and a signatory to the constitution.

      How long before Jefferson's labelled as a socialist?

      • Now you've done it - you've quoted one of the founding fathers and a signatory to the constitution.

        How long before Jefferson's labelled as a socialist?

        It has happened already - apparently as a compliment, no less. [jurist.org]

        The TFA linked above also applies the same label to Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. But it places some limits on the characterization:

        Of course, the Founding generation did not believe that every human endeavor benefited from governmental competition. The founding generation’s socialism only went so far. The Founders believed in private enterprise.

        But it was not long before the Founders’ sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, discovered the benefits of extending socialism beyond communication, transportation and national defense. Libraries, fire protection, police protection and education were all socialized to some extent in the nineteenth century. None of these developments replaced private enterprise - they merely insured that more Americans reaped the benefits.

      • by cpt kangarooski ( 3773 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @08:22PM (#59974392) Homepage

        Jefferson didn't sign the US Constitution; he was serving as the American ambassador to France.

        He did sign (and basically wrote) the Declaration of Independence, however.

        • He also owned his own children, like a total boss.
          • Jefferson was born as a European, so not surprising.
            That was the norm for Europe in those days and that included their colonies, including America.
        • by dwywit ( 1109409 )

          And thus we see the limitations on an Australian's knowledge of US history :-) Thanks for the info, that's one thing I've learned today.

    • All those that go to work, including the owner/executives, must agree legally, that they will NOT use any EMS, hospital resources for covid. Obviously, if they have a non-covid item, then go ahead. BUT, if they catch covid, they would be on their own

      This would be impossible to enforce. Federal guidelines on receiving medical dollars prevent this from happening. You would literally have to change the US healthcare system. Even then, if you changed it, people would subvert it to no end. People suck and they'll do sucky things, especially when you tell them to not do those things. People love being lazy and staying fat bumps on a log at their house....... Until you tell them to do exactly that, then suddenly nobody in the US wants to do that. Same t

    • by TheDarkMaster ( 1292526 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @07:59PM (#59974330)
      "Needless to say, both of these 2 were screaming about the idea, and were all for opening businesses (legal rights), but not wanting to take responsibility for their actions."

      That is the definition of the nutcases. They want to do stupid acts, they growl about their right to do stupid acts, but they don't accept any responsibility for the consequences of the stupid acts they do.
      • No.
        That is just the GOP's main point of view. From their point, the GOP, like trump, never take responsibilities for their actions.
    • And just wait until you find out that Trump is considering shielding corporations from liability for workers who contract COVID-19 when they go back to work: https://www.commondreams.org/n... [commondreams.org]

      • I'll bet there's a plan to cut off your unemployment too. Basically if your state opens up, and you don't feel safe going back to work / opening your business, you can pay for it personally from then on.

    • It should be pretty clear by now that population density plays a large role in how quickly this virus spreads - all the hotspots thus far are cities. So if the goal is to reduce the rate of virus spread to a certain level (low enough for hospitals to handle), then urban areas may need strict social distancing and stay at home orders, while rural areas can achieve the same low rate of spread with less stringent restrictions.

      I disagree with reopening entire states or the entire country too quickly. But b
      • Sioux Falls (population 180K) might disagree. That is a fairly small city. That is also the city with the Smithfield pork processing plant with 700 out of 3700 employees sick from covid.
      • You are correct. My rural county of 90,000 spread over 2,800 sq miles is averaging 5 new cases a day, and has been flat lined for weeks. And since agriculture is exempt, there isn't as much locked down as you think. The virus just can't seem to get running.

        The hospitals are empty because of the ban on elective surgery. There are 8 virus patients. and 140-odd known cases. The two who died had the multiple co-morbidity labels.

        If our dim-bulb governor would realize that people out fishing are far more than 6 f

      • Population density plays a part, but the real issue has been the movement of Chinese around the world. In particular, China's govenment pushed the northern Italians to 'hug a Chinese'. The other day, it was claimed on here that Chinese did NOT bring covid to America. Only problem with that, is that nearly all of the strain in America is strain A, which is the one directly from China, and not from elsewhere. In fact, Italy has strain B, which never made it to New York. As such, the arguments that others pro
    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @08:44PM (#59974468)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The problem is, even if we re-open the economy, the economy will still implode if people are afraid of the virus. Mike DeWine, in planning the reopening of Ohio, made a very good point that as long as the virus is spreading it wouldn't actually help the economy if the stay at home order was lifted. So many people would voluntarily self-quarantine that the economy wouldn't be able to restart. If people aren't going out to buy inessential things and partake in recreation, no one is going to pay workers to run

  • Fox News. Bullshit Mountain as Jonny Stew used to call them..
  • and the intense amount of effort we've put into preventing inflation means that we're likely to be able to print money for months without significant inflationary problems.

    Simply put there's plenty of food and shelter, and even healthcare if we don't all get sick with COVID019. And there's certainly no shortage of gasoline.

    Oh, and overpopulation isn't a problem either. If anything modern countries are having huge problems with declining birth rates. Even India's is half what is was in the 70s. Moder
    • Wrong, terrible things are happening and will happen because of this shutdown.

      U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned hundreds of thousands of children will die from effects of the unwise and stupid economic shutdown. Millions have been suddenly thrust into poverty. Necessary surgeries and dental procedures have been postponed as offices forbidden to open.

  • by ikhider ( 2837593 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @09:05PM (#59974528)
    The anti-lockdown protestors could have made a point by saying, "We look to places like South Korea and Taiwan who prove that you can both be open and reduce numbers of infected. Let us study, emulate and perhaps even improve upon their methods." That would be the smart approach. Get educated, organize, come up with a system to mitigate lack of resources until it arrives. Work on communal solutions. Instead, these morons bring their guns to government buildings to brandish like extras from 'The Road Warrior' demanding a 'fat tank of gas'. As if their guns will scare the virus away. Yes, America (and the world) can open tomorrow and resume life, *if we are smart*. Unfortunately, the lock down is neccesary because the dummies outnumber the smart. A country where self-interest outweighs the collective good will just bring more lockdowns as the best solution. Locked like animals instead of being with intelligence. Aww heck, this is even insulting to animals, who generally do behave more intelligently.
    • You might be on the right track here bro.

      We look to places like South Korea and Taiwan who prove that you can both be open and reduce numbers of infected. Let us study, emulate and perhaps even improve upon their methods

      But you're not helping your cause by subsequently saying:

      Unfortunately, the lock down is neccesary because the dummies outnumber the smart. A country where self-interest outweighs the collective good will just bring more lockdowns as the best solution. Locked like animals instead of being with intelligence. Aww heck, this is even insulting to animals, who generally do behave more intelligently.

      Was that really necessary? Did you really expect someone with a contrary opinion to take you seriously after that?

      • My friend, the painful truth is that a good part of the humans actually acts like animals, selfish animals unable to understand rules and especially the reason behind those rules.
      • The right answers to corona virus and so many other crises are visible and within our grasp, but for whatever reason, more arms are tightly wrapped around the wrong answers. Wrong answers that serve the selfish interests of but a few, yet the masses are with them. Even when the masses are informed (and shown) that they will get no share of the benefit to the few. Dummies.
  • bought WHOIS privacy.
  • But a review of other details about these domains suggests a majority of them are tied to various gun rights groups, state Republican Party organizations, and conservative think tanks, religious and advocacy groups.

    Um, and? Are we suspending even freedom of electronic assembly?

  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @10:34PM (#59974742)

    Corporation backed groups trying to bullshit people into thinking it was a grassroots movement that people want to ensure the corporate overlords don't have to do without profit for a week or two and not give a damn about their health?

    You don't say.

    Ya know, at least in communism, people knew they were being bullshitted into propping the system up...

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