Posts Tagged ‘hacking’
Friday, December 18th, 2020
Greetings, and welcome to another Friday LinkSwarm! On a personal note, I was just laid off from my Senior Technical Writer job, so if you have any leads in the department (for either Austin or remote work), drop me a line in the comments.
Russian hackers penetrated Austin city government:
State-sponsored hackers believed to be from Russia have breached the city network of Austin, Texas, The Intercept has learned. The breach, which appears to date from at least mid-October, adds to the stunning array of intrusions attributed to Russia over the past few months.
The list of reported victims includes the departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, State, and the Treasury; the Pentagon; cybersecurity firm FireEye; IT software company SolarWinds; and assorted airports and local government networks across the United States, among others. The breach in Austin is another apparent victory for Russia’s hackers. By compromising the network of America’s 11th-most populous city, they could theoretically access sensitive information on policing, city governance, and elections, and, with additional effort, burrow inside water, energy, and airport networks. The hacking outfit believed to be behind the Austin breach, Berserk Bear, also appears to have used Austin’s network as infrastructure to stage additional attacks.
While the attacks on SolarWinds, FireEye, and U.S. government agencies have been linked to a second Russian group — APT29, also known as Cozy Bear — the Austin breach represents another battlefront in a high-stakes cyber standoff between the United States and Russia. Both Berserk Bear and Cozy Bear are known for quietly lurking in networks, often for months, while they spy on their targets. Berserk Bear — which is also known as Energetic Bear, Dragonfly, TEMP.Isotope, Crouching Yeti, and BROMINE, among other names — is believed to be responsible for a series of breaches of critical U.S. infrastructure over the past year.
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
“Illegal-immigrant caravans back on the way — and Joe Biden ‘invited’ them.” (Hat tip: TPPF.)
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez calls for Nancy Pelosi’s ouster as Speaker of the House.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) called for new leadership to replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), in an interview with The Intercept aired on Wednesday.
The remarks represent Ocasio-Cortez’s most direct challenge to current Democratic congressional leadership, and come a month after Michigan representative Elissa Slotkin vowed not to support Pelosi for another term as House Speaker. Pelosi is the only candidate for the position, but with Democrats projected to win at most 226 House seats, Pelosi can only lose eight Democratic votes to remain Speaker.
I wonder: If enough of the hard left defects to keep Pelosi from one more term as speaker, might there be enough Democrats to vote for a moderate Republican as Speaker rather than being ruled by The Squad?
Another Obama-era crony green energy boondoggle goes bust:
Move over, Solyndra. Another green boondoggle from the Obama era has failed, and taxpayers are out as much as $510 million. Late last week Judge Karen Owens approved a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization by Tonopah Solar Energy. Tonopah operated the Crescent Dunes solar plant in Nevada that received $737 million in guaranteed loans from the Obama Administration.
The plan includes a settlement with the Department of Energy that leaves taxpayers liable for as much as $234.68 million in outstanding debt, but the total public cost is even higher. Crescent Dunes also received an investment-tax credit, and the 2009 stimulus legislation allowed it to receive a cash payment in lieu of credit. In 2017 the plant received more than $275.6 million from Treasury under the Section 1603 program, which it used to service its outstanding liabilities. So taxpayers already gave Crescent Dunes cash to pay off its taxpayer-backed loans.
Snip.
DOE expected Crescent Dunes to produce up to 482,000 megawatt hours every year, but the plant hasn’t produced that much energy in its lifetime. In 2019 Crescent Dunes’s hot salt tanks suffered what partial owner SolarReserve described as “a catastrophic failure” that has left the plant inoperable.
Since molten salt is one of the key elements in many next generation nuclear plant designs, I searched online for pictures of what a catastrophic hot salt tank failure looks like, but I couldn’t find any.
Portland keeps letting Antifa run wild:
Last week, Portland law enforcers raided a house that had for months been illegally occupied by trespassers affiliated with Black Lives Matter and Antifa. At the barricaded property, officers made arrests and found a stockpile of firearms.
Under normal circumstances, the armed trespassers would be prosecuted, and that would be the end of the story. But in riot-plagued Portland, Oregon, things are very far from normal.
The city’s “progressive” district attorney immediately dropped the charges against the occupiers, and their comrades soon sent in reinforcements to build a sprawling autonomous zone in the middle of a densely populated residential area.
The militants called the place the Red House Autonomous Zone — named after the red-painted house occupied at the heart of the zone. In doing so, they took inspiration from the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, Washington. During the summer, leftist extremists chased police out of a six-block area of the Emerald City and drew their own “borders,” complete with checkpoints manned by armed “security.” The three-week experiment in lawlessness ended in mass vandalism, attempted rape, multiple shootings and two homicides.
Portland’s RHAZ is following in the same footsteps.
The house at the center of the autonomous zone was occupied by members of the Kinney family and their allies. The Kinneys, who haven’t paid their mortgage since 2017, were evicted after a tortuous legal process. The fact that they own a second house nearby didn’t prevent the mixed-race Kinneys and their allies from claiming victimization by — you guessed it — “racism.”
Soon after last week’s raid on the occupied house, some 100 Antifa comrades mobilized through social media to retake the space. “There is an active call for numbers, defensive gear and supplies and change of clothes,” tweeted Antifa group Youth Liberation Front.
Within a few hours, the entire street was blocked off with stolen fencing, wood and junk taken from nearby homes. Some brought in power tools to reinforce the barriers. The militants laid out piles of rocks, metal spikes and glass bottles at strategic points to act as supply points for projectile weapons. They lined the road with impromptu “booby traps” — upward-facing nail strips, caltrops and more.
Portland police officers tried to shut down the RHAZ early on, but they were attacked and chased away. Their police cruisers were smashed up; they didn’t return.
“Those present at the barricades should leave it behind, put down your weapons and allow the neighborhood to return to peace and order,” Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell asked the militants, who ignored his polite request.
Portland residents should file federal civil rights lawsuits against Portland officials for equal protection violations. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Plus Portland antifa are still the same scumbags:
A serial sex offender and Black Lives Matter activist recently released from prison served a titular leadership role at the Antifa autonomous zone in north Portland.
Micah Isaiah Rhodes, 27, was convicted of three counts of second-degree sexual abuse of minors in 2018. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after violating probation by being near children during an Antifa occupation of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
(Hat tip: Director Blue.)
“Former [Andrew] Cuomo Aide Lindsey Boylan Alleges Governor Sexually Harassed Her For Years.” Hey, what do you want to bet that #BelieveAllWomen magically doesn’t apply to powerful Democrat yet again? For Reasons.
Rhode Island’s Democratic governor Gina Raimondo: “Don’t go out and wear a mask.” Four days later: Goes to a wine bar, doesn’t wear a mask. Laws are for the peasants, not the Democratic Party ruling class. (Hat tip: Andrew Malcolm.)
Dem. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard commits heresy against radical transgenderism, sponsers bill that would ban men from women’s sports.
Get woke, go broke. “Dismal NFL Ratings Force Networks To Renegotiate With Advertisers.”
Things look bad for movie theaters.
“Leader Of German Audit Watchdog Caught Trading In Wirecard Shares Before Collapse.”
If the MSM didn’t have double standards, they’d have no standards at all:
Camille Paglia unloads on academic leftism:
Over at Borepatch, there’s a swell story about Air Force Brigadier General James Maitland Stewart.
Eating chili peppers can extend your life. I’m going to live forever…
Cyberpunk 2077 sucked so bad on PS4 that Sony pulled it from the store and is offering refunds.
Zodiac killer cipher broken. Also consider this a reminder that Zodiac is one f David Fincher’s best films.
Speaking of great films: Ann Reinking, RIP. She was awesome in All That Jazz, one of the all-time great American movies.
Welcome BadBlue (by the same folks behind Director Blue) to the blogroll.
A first edition of The Federalist Papers sold at auction for $226,800.
The Flu would like a word:
Funny dog video:
“Chinese Spy Assigned To Date Eric Swalwell Begs To Be Sent To Labor Camp Instead.”
Like BattleSwarm? Consider hitting the tip jar:
Tags:#BlackLivesMatter, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Andrew Cuomo, Andy Ngo, antifa, Austin, Border Controls, Camille Paglia, Crescent Dunes, Crime, data security, dogs, education, Elissa Slotkin, Eric Swalwell, FireEye, Germany, Gina Raimondo, green subsidies, hacking, Jimmy Stewart, Joe Biden, Lindsey Boylan, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, Micah Isaiah Rhodes, movies, Nancy Pelosi, New York, NFL, Obituary, Portland, Regulation, Rhode Island, Russia, sex offender, Social Justice Warriors, SolarWinds, Tulsi Gabbard, Wirecard
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors | 3 Comments »
Friday, November 22nd, 2019
Another week of the impeachment farce, another week of an embarrassing nothingburger and bombing ratings for Democrats:
Week one impeachment farce summary: “None of those three witnesses were have met with the President, none of them were on the July 25th phone call, and none of them have firsthand information, and none of them are aware of any criminal activity or impeachable offense. In short, why are we here?” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
The so-called “Whistleblower” has no statutory right to anonymity.
The impeachment farce is boring American voters to sleep. (Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)
“Impeachment Inquiry Canceled After 5 Episodes Due To Low Ratings.”
How the impeachment farce has actually validated reports of Democrat skullduggery in Ukraine:
The half dozen seminal columns I published for The Hill on Ukraine were already supported by overwhelming documentation (all embedded in the story) and on-the-record interviews captured on video. They made three salient and simple points:
- Hunter Biden’s hiring by the Ukrainian gas firm Burisma Holdings, while it was under a corruption investigation, posed the appearance of a conflict of interest for his father. That’s because Vice President Joe Biden oversaw US-Ukraine policy and forced the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor overseeing the case.
- Ukraine officials had an uneasy relationship with our embassy in Kiev because State Department officials exerted pressure on Ukraine prosecutors to drop certain cases against activists, including one group partly funded by George Soros.
- There were efforts around Ukraine in 2016 to influence the US election, that included a request from a DNC contractor for dirt on Manafort, an OpEd from Ukraine’s US ambassador slamming Trump and the release of law enforcement evidence by Ukrainian officials that a Ukraine court concluded was an improper interference in the US election.
All three of these points have since been validated by the sworn testimony of Schiff’s witnesses this month, starting with the Bidens.
(Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Schiff and Pelosi are racing two clocks: The narrative clock for dropping the Horowitz IG report into FISA, etc. abuse, and the judicial clock against three different court cases that might derail the farce. And since they just went into their Thanksgiving break, the House only has eight voting days in December to do it and pass a budget before leaving for the Christmas brealk.
“Former FBI lawyer under investigation after allegedly altering document in 2016 Russia probe.”
Trump is surging with suburban women, raking in more donations than any of the Democratic candidates.
Trump Administration to start enforcing new asylum rules by sending asylum-seekers back to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
“[Democratic] Former Baltimore Mayor Pugh indicted on 11 counts of fraud, tax evasion in ‘Healthy Holly’ book scandal.” (You only have to get six paragraphs in to learn that Pugh is a Democrat. Progress!)
Federal prosecutors have charged former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh with 11 counts of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy in what they allege was a corrupt scheme involving her sales of a self-published children’s book series.
In a grand jury indictment made public Wednesday, prosecutors allege Pugh defrauded area businesses and nonprofit organizations with nearly $800,000 in sales of her “Healthy Holly” books to unlawfully enrich herself, promote her political career and illegally fund her campaign for mayor.
Though her customers ordered more than 100,000 copies of the books, the indictment says Pugh failed to print thousands of copies, double-sold others and took some to use for self-promotion. Pugh, 69, used the profits to buy a house, pay down debt, and make illegal straw donations to her campaign, prosecutors allege.
At the same time, prosecutors said, she was evading taxes. In 2016, for instance, when she was a state senator and ran for mayor, she told the Internal Revenue Service she had made just $31,000. In fact, her income was more than $322,000 that year ― meaning she shorted the federal government of about $100,000 in taxes, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The charges Pugh faces carry potential sentences totaling 175 years in prison. Prosecutors are seeking to seize $769,688 of her profits, along with her current home in Ashburton, which they allege she bought and renovated with fraudulently obtained funds.
Uncle Sam is not omniscient, but if you’re a public official and you’re taking in ten times as much money as you declare, yeah, I bet they’re gonna figure that one out, Crooked Kathy.
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Speaking of Democratic Party mayors being indicted, Mayors Against Illegal Guns member Dennis Tyler, mayor of Muncie, Indiana, was arrested by the FBI as part of a corruption probe. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
More background on corruption in Muncie.
Last January, former Muncie Building Commissioner Craig Nichols pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison.
Others charged in the federal corruption probe include Muncie Sanitary District Administrator Debra Nicole Grigsby, Muncie Sanitary District official Tracy Barton; and local businessmen Jeffrey Burke, Tony Franklin and Rodney A. Barber.
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
The U.S. just extradited a top Russian cybercriminal from Israel.
The Russian government has for the past four years been fighting to keep 29-year-old alleged cybercriminal Alexei Burkov from being extradited by Israel to the United States. When Israeli authorities turned down requests to send him back to Russia — supposedly to face separate hacking charges there — the Russians then imprisoned an Israeli woman for seven years on trumped-up drug charges in a bid to trade prisoners. That effort failed as well, and Burkov had his first appearance in a U.S. court last week. What follows are some clues that might explain why the Russians are so eager to reclaim this young man.
On the surface, the charges the U.S. government has leveled against Burkov may seem fairly unremarkable: Prosecutors say he ran a credit card fraud forum called CardPlanet that sold more than 150,000 stolen cards.
However, a deep dive into the various pseudonyms allegedly used by Burkov suggests this individual may be one of the most connected and skilled malicious hackers ever apprehended by U.S. authorities, and that the Russian government is probably concerned that he simply knows too much.
There seem to be very few elite Russian hacking organizations Burkov, AKA “K0pa,” didn’t have a key administrative role in.
Speaking of hacking: “Ghost ships, crop circles, and soft gold: A GPS mystery in Shanghai.” Somebody in Shanghai has been spoofing GPS signals to make ships (and anything else using GPS) appear they’re someplace else, and GPS experts don’t understand how they’re doing it. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
China is stealing our secrets from inside our own government:
Foreign-born researchers working at U.S. agencies secretly joined China’s payroll, sending sensitive U.S.-funded research to the country while U.S. government agencies took almost no defensive measures against a major recruitment operation, a Senate investigation found.
Researchers linked to the Chinese government formed a Chinese cell within the Department of Energy, attained access to American genomic data, and recruited other U.S. researchers to join, the bipartisan report stated.
China’s Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) aims to get foreign governments to finance the communist power’s military and economy by buying off researchers who are doing work abroad. The experts apply to the program, and if approved by the Communist Party, they join China’s payroll and sign secret side agreements that the experts will share their research with that country, according to the investigation.
China’s looming class struggle. As always, the proletariat get screwed by communism…
The Clinton Foundation suffered a $16.8 million loss in 2018. It’s a great mystery how that could have happened…
The upcoming UK election is no longer an election about Brexit, it’s an election about how incredibly unpopular Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson enjoys a mere plus 4% favorability rating. Corbyn has a minus 43% favorability rating. “This election is no longer primarily about Brexit, it’s primarily about Corbyn and his extreme socialist policies! Corbyn is rightfully getting clobbered.”
Snipers kill protestors in Iran.
The sudden move by the oil-rich regime to ration gasoline and hike fuel prices is a direct result of President Donald Trump’s strategy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran. While the regime thrived under the Obama administration, which handed billions of dollars to Tehran for signing the nuclear deal, the current administration has reinstated stiff sanctions against the ruling Mullahs.
After President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 deal, the sanctions have crippled Iran’s state-run oil, shipping, and banking sectors. The U.S. government implemented the sanctions against the regime’s top brass and the IRGC, which controls critical sectors of the Iranian economy.
“Reuters Deletes Story Meant to Make Trump Look Bad After Realizing it Made Obama Look Bad.” The Ministry of Truth confirms that this story has been rectified.
“Google Is Blacklisting Conservative News Sites, Despite Denials Made Under Oath.”
Trump appointment flips the 11th circuit court, which covers Florida, Georgia and Alabama.
Jeffrey Epstein evidently had cameras in every bedroom…and every toilet. Makes the “honeypot for blackmail” idea seem all the more likely…
The MSM doesn’t trust you to handle the truth.
Woke Charlie’s Angels is the latest box office disaster.
“Call us old-fashioned, but we don’t think the chairman of the Homeland Security committee should fly cocaine from the Mexican border into the interior.”
How NBA executive Jeff David stole over $13 million from the Sacramento Kings. That amount of money will get people’s attention…(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Climategate refresher.
Heh:
Florida Man, meet Wisconsin Man: “Man arrested for 4th OWI, fake license plates made of cardboard beer case.”
“Democrat Finally Releases Something Of Substance.”
Tags:Adam Schiff, Alexei Burkov, Baltimore, Border Controls, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Catherine Pugh, China, Climategate, Communism, corruption, Crime, data security, Debra Nicole Grigsby, Democrats, Dennis Tyler, Donald Trump, El Salvador, Eric Swalwell, FBI, Florida, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Google, GPS, Greta Thunberg, Guata, Guatemala, hacking, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, Hollywood, Honduras, Hunter Biden, impeachment, Indiana, Iran, IRS, Israel, Jeffrey Burke, Jeffrey Epstein, Jeremy Corbyn, Jihad, Joe Biden, LinkSwarm, Luke Rosiak, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Media Watch, Military, Muncie, Nancy Pelosi, NBA, Poncho Nevarez, Reuters, Russia, Shanghai, Social Justice Warriors, spying, Supreme Court, technology, Texas, Tracy Barton, UK, Ukraine, Wisconsin
Posted in Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Social Justice Warriors, Supreme Court, Texas, Waste and Fraud | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 16th, 2016
The big news this week is that, following hot on the heels of the DNC hack, is that George Soros got hacked. That’s pretty significant, given how thoroughly Soros has funded the American left.
Pretty much everyone knows that Soros is Mr. Moneybags to the left. However, few people realize just how how extensive his influence is. For one thing, Soros is big on ethnic grievance mongering, helping fund:
Organizations that depict America as a nation whose enduring racism must be counterbalanced by racial and ethnic preferences in favor of nonwhites:
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund calls itself “the nation’s leading Latino legal civil rights organization.”
The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law provides “legal services to address racial discrimination.”
The NAACP and its Legal Defense and Educational Fund uses “litigation, advocacy, and public education” to promote “structural changes” and “achieve racial justice in the United States”
The National Council of La Raza charges that “discrimination severely limits the economic and social opportunities available to Hispanic Americans.”
Snip.
Organizations that promote open borders, mass immigration, a watering down of current immigration laws, increased rights and benefits for illegal aliens, and ultimately amnesty:
The American Immigration Council—formerly known as the the American Immigration Law Foundation—supports “birthright citizenship” for children born to illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Casa de Maryland periodically sponsors “know your rights” training sessions to teach illegals how to evade punishment in the event that they are apprehended in an immigration raid.
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center belongs to the sanctuary movement that tries to shield illegal aliens from the law.
The Migration Policy Institute advocates a more permissive U.S. refugee admissions and resettlement policy, as well as more social-welfare benefits for illegals residing in the U.S.
LatinoJustice PRLDF is a legal advocacy group that “protects opportunities for all Latinos … especially the most vulnerable—new immigrants and the poor.”
The Immigration Policy Center states that “[r]equiring the 10-11 million unauthorized immigrants residing in the U.S. to register with the government and meet eligibility criteria in order to gain legal status is a key element of comprehensive immigration reform.”
The National Immigration Forum opposes the enhancement of the U.S. Border Patrol and the construction of a border fence to prevent illegal immigration.
The National Immigration Law Center works to help low-income immigrants gain access to government-funded welfare programs on the same basis as legal American citizens.
And that’s among the dozens of other categories of leftist groups Soros has funded.
In this election cycle, Soros dumped “more than $30 million in seed money to Black Lives Matter affiliated groups.”
Jihad watch also noted that Soros gave $50,000 to do opposition research on groups opposing Jihad:
Ironically, much of the Center for American Progress’ libelous and inaccurate “research” on the alleged purveyors of “Islamophobia” focused on the money we were all supposedly raking in, in an attempt to portray us as cynical profiteers only in it for the money. The CAP reports wildly exaggerated, misrepresented, and distorted the financial data, and meanwhile were making huge sums themselves to do it. Jihad Watch has never received a single grant as large as these that CAP received from Soros: the real cynical profiteers were Soros’ paid operatives.
Given all this, it’s a little disappointing that everything I’ve seen released so far just seems to be banal organizational detritus (although this doc seems to have some interesting funding information). Maybe more significant revelations are coming.
You can find the Soros docs themselves here.
Tags:amnesty, Border Controls, Democrats, George Soros, hacking, Jihad
Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Jihad | 2 Comments »
Thursday, June 23rd, 2016
This week’s roundup of Clinton Corruption is being headlined by Guccifer 2.0 revelations. The stuff released so far is interesting, but (and I say this as someone who thinks Hillary Clinton should be in prison) pretty weak sauce.
Oh sure, it’s nice to have documented proof that the DNC and the media were out to support Clinton and to screw Bernie Sanders, but everyone already knew that.
There are dozens of Clinton shoes (especially from Hillary’s own email server and the Clinton Foundation) still to drop…
Leaked Memo Teaches Clinton Staffers How To Break Campaign Finance Laws And Get Away With It. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Rush Limbaugh thinks that Donald Trump’s speech slamming Clinton’s corruption was effective. “She is the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency.”
Here’s the text of that speech. Excerpt:
Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and theft.
She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund – doing favors for oppressive regimes, and many others, in exchange for cash.
Then, when she left, she made $21.6 million giving speeches to Wall Street banks and other special interests – in less than 2 years – secret speeches that she does not want to reveal to the public.
Together, she and Bill made $153 million giving speeches to lobbyists, CEOs, and foreign governments in the years since 2001.
They totally own her, and that will never change.
Clinton’s incompetence caused the State Department to turn off email protection for State systems to accommodate her. Interestingly, the sentence “They were trying urgently to resolve an apparent conflict between the server’s built-in email delivery features with a version of “ScanMail for Exchange” security software from Trend Micro Inc. that had been installed on her server.” has been removed from the original AP story…
“Clinton IT specialist invokes 5th more than 125 times in deposition.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
“Judicial Watch Releases State Department Inspector General Investigation Records Related to Hillary Clinton Emails.” But I’m not seeing a “Download here” link… (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Crime, Democrats, Donald Trump, Elections, hacking, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, technology
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 19th, 2015
It looks like hackers have dumped everything they stole from affair/scam/blackmail site Ashley Madison, which comes to a hefty 10 gigs of compressed data, including:
user names, first and last names, and hashed passwords for 33 million accounts, partial credit card data, street names, and phone numbers for huge numbers of users, records documenting 9.6 million transactions, and 36 million email addresses. While much of the data is sure to correspond to anonymous burner accounts, it’s a likely bet many of them belong to real people who visited the site for clandestine encounters. For what it’s worth, more than 15,000 of the e-mail addresses are hosted by US government and military servers using the .gov and .mil top-level domains.
The leak also includes PayPal accounts used by Ashley Madison executives, Windows domain credentials for employees, and a large number of proprietary internal documents. Also found: huge numbers of internal documents, memos, org charts, contracts, sales techniques, and more.
Maybe Ashley Madison should close up shop now and save itself the trouble of waiting until the lawsuits force them into bankruptcy.
In honor of their incredible incompetence, and the sleazy idiocy of their entire business model, here are the Top 10 Ashley Madison pickup lines recovered from the server:
- “Did you get those 27 dick pics I sent you?” — CarlosDanger@Hotmail.com
- “Do you need money? I can create all I need out of thin air!” — qe@federalreserve.gov
- “I’ve got this one weird trick that will totally rock your cooter!” — RagingStud@buzzfeed.com
- “Yeah, I’ve got to be willing to throw my body in the path of a bullet. My big, sweaty male body. Pretty hot, huh?” — ProtectAndSex@secretservice.gov
- “I’m into submission, saving the environment, and raising taxes.” — Loverboy@dnc.org
- “I’m into submission, saving the environment, and raising taxes.” — TotallyIndependent@mediamatters.org
- “You can have sex with me, or I can have your entire family liquidated. Your choice.” — SuperDuperStudMiffinVlad@kremlin.ru
- “Sure, Miss Wong, I’ll let you use my login!” — SecuritySupervisor@opm.gov.
- “Whip me like I’m an underperforming index fund!” — pumpanddump@goldmansachs.com
- “Hill will never know. She’s off in Dubai picking up a crate of money.” — SexySaxophone@clintonfoundation.org
Tags:Ashley Madison, Democrats, hacking, Satire, technology
Posted in Democrats, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
Bishop Hill has dug into the hacked and leaked documents from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit mentioned yesterday. The indefatigable John Hindraker at Powerline has also waded into the document morass.
Before the analysis, some caveats:
- Hacking other people’s computers is bad, mmmkay?
- Downloading hacked files is of dubious legal/ethical standing.
- What has been released is purportedly only a small sample of a much larger stash of documents. What has been released has certainly been cherry-picked, and there’s no guarantee that it’s actually representative, hasn’t been altered, etc.
- Anytime you see the inner workings of any organization, there’s going to be distasteful aspects of seeing how the sausage get made, discussion of how to play up strengths, hide or ignore weaknesses, etc. It’s naive to think that science, however lofty tried and true its means or lofty its goals, is going to be immune.
All that said, what is here is more damaging (and damning) than previously suggested. There’s still no smoking gun (i.e. “We all know global warming is fake, so stop crunching those number and join us at the big taxpayer-funded hooker and blow party tonight at Gordon Brown’s flat!”), but there are dozens, if not hundreds, of guns that are at least a little warm.
What these emails show is sustained, coordinated attempts to massage, cherry-pick, and skew data to support a consensus of anthropocentric global warming, and to downplay or ignore any evidence of global cooling over the last decade or, failing that, the significance of same.
In the meantime, they complete institutional investment of certain groups of climate scientists (and their non-scientific followers) in presenting AGW as Sacred Truth immune to criticism is a good reason for continued skepticism, and for all their data to be released. It’s also another good argument (of many) to hold off on expensive, big government boondoggles like the Waxman-Markey “cap and trade” bill until the science can be verified by dispassionate observers (or, better yet, hostile critics).
I’m sure there are a lot more revelations to come.
Tags:Climategate, Global Warming, hacking
Posted in Global Warming | No Comments »
Friday, November 20th, 2009
Among the big news making the rounds is that hackers (or crackers, as certain Slashdot pedants insist we differentiate them) have broken into the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, where all sorts of <gratuitous UK slang>boffins</gratuitous UK slang> have been pushing anthropocentric global warming, and the necessity of massive government intervention to combat same, for some time now.
Some who are (like myself) skeptical of AGW are crowing that it’s the smoking gun proving it’s all a fraud:
Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.
Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air also thinks they spell fraud.
My take, given that I’ve only read a small number of excerpts for a small number of documents (see below): Embarrassing and suggestive, but far short of a “smoking gun” proving it’s all fraud.
The CRU information doesn’t appear to be up at Wikileaks yet, so here’s a link to a torrent at the Pirate Bay. (Warning: Downloading hacked/leaked/stolen information from the Pirate Bay may not be legal in your jurisdiction. Or moral given your frame of ethics. Plus some off the ads veer toward the NSFW. Be sure to consult with a qualified ethicist, HR Director, or minister before downloading. Or, failing that, The Magic Eight Ball.) I haven’t downloaded it yet, less out of moral qualms than simply because my Torrent-fu is weak…
Updated: An easier download link from the folks at Slashdot.
Tags:Climate Change, Climategate, Global Warming, hacking
Posted in Global Warming | 1 Comment »