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.'"

Comments

Slashdot's petty partisanship.

[Rotten168]

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

This begs the question

[LaughingCoder]

Kudos to the Attrition crew for posting the whole email dialogue online!

Would they have gone public if the fellow was a Democrat?

Worst Headline Evar

[Spud Stud]

"Republican Aide Tries to Hire Hackers" strongly implies that there was some political motive involved. There was none. Such a clumsy swipe damages any credibility Slashdot had of appearing politically neutral. Zonk, you should be ashamed.

I just have to observations on this story

[Overly Critical Guy]

1.) When Republicans do bad things, journalists always make sure to mention that he's a Republican. When Democrats do bad things, political affiliation is often left out. The Associated Press did this very thing recently with a Democrat politician who was found guilty of financial crimes.

2.) This will make it to the front page of many news sites, and Democrats will cite this as proof of how corrupt and evil Republicans are. Meanwhile, the media will continue to sweep the Sandy Berger under the rug. If only Berger was a Republican...then it would be massive national news. But when a Democrat official working for a presidential administration steals documents that may embarrass said president, it's old news and nobody cares, right? After all, the 9/11 commission already had copies of the documents he took, right? It makes total sense for an administration official to steal official documents that the commission already had copies of. There's surely nothing being hidden in this story. Ahem.

Re:I just have to observations on this story

[Doc Ruby]

Let's see some evidence of your assertion. I'm sure you can cherry-pick the many stories about (usually made-up) Democrats "doing bad things" that omit that they're Democrats. And from the tiny representation in stories of Republicans "doing bad things" (like breaking the law from an elected office), I'm sure you can find those few that mention that they're Republicans.

While you're at it, let's see what "Sandy Berger story" you're talking about, since you insist on changing the subject to something totally irrelevant to this Republican's crime. Then I'll easily show with a quick Google how overexposed were the Republican lies published without criticism in mass media about whatever it is that you obviously heard on the Rush Limbo Junkie Dream Hour.

No, really, I want to see how you turn this story about a Republican criminal racketeer into a story about Democrats, by making things up. After all, if you're going to carry water for these Republican criminals like your Republican media pipeline, I'm here to help you drown.