Slashdot Mirror
Hacking the Presidential Election
An anonymous reader writes "Security researchers at a recent summit predicted US voters will be targeted by web-based dirty tricks campaigns as the 2008 election gets nearer. Spam, botnets and phishing all provide good opportunities to mislead voters and attack rivals with little risk of being caught, they say."
As an example of what's already happening, there have been stories about this the last couple days: apparently someone sent a 'spoofed' email, claiming to be from a Huckabee campaign functionary in Iowa, stating that he was going to ditch Huckabee for Romney. One of many stories.
The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer. - Albert Einstein
Good point, and in WA it is perfectly legal to outright make up lies for campaign ads. Before a recent state supreme court ruling it could result in a fine. Now the candidates have to take each other for court, and the issue of whether or not the ad was libelous isn't determined until 8 months after the election.
"Security researchers at a recent summit" obviously have a very limited knowledge of political campaigns. No campaign manager that actually got to the level of being on a serious contender's camapign would risk a media storm over something like that. I'm sure if "Security researchers at a recent summit" managed campaigns, that might happen...but otherwise there's no way to pull that off without paying someone a lot of money...and if you pay them it goes on your FEC report..and if it goes on your FEC report, your opponents' researchers see it as plain as day.
Not gonna happen.
The Democrats couldn't impeach Bush if they tried. They have a slim majority, that's all. It's not nearly enough to impeach or pass veto-proof bills without Republican support.