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Obama, McCain Campaigns Both Hacked, Files Compromised
dunezone writes "As the election ends, news is coming out from both campaigns on what happened behind closed doors. During the summer, the Obama campaign had their systems hacked, but so did McCain — and not by each other, but by a third party. '... both the FBI and the Secret Service came to the campaign with an ominous warning: "You have a problem way bigger than what you understand," an agent told Obama's team. "You have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off your system." The following day, Obama campaign chief David Plouffe heard from White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, to the same effect: "You have a real problem ... and you have to deal with it." The Feds told Obama's aides in late August that the McCain campaign's computer system had been similarly compromised.'"
Also from the article: "Officials at the FBI and the White House told the Obama campaign that they believed a foreign entity or organization sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps' policy positions — information that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration."
I guess we'll find out soon enough.
http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
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Because eventually people have to get work done
Pffft, before you go jumping up on all the other countries who would want this info, given the current foreign policy of the US, I wouldn't at all be surprised it they weren't both hacked by inside sources - just to make them THINK it was another country "wanting to invade the proud US of A".
I mean seriously, all those paranoid big chiefs sitting in powerful seats within government organizations? They have careers to protect. Why not make whoever gets into power fearful of the "outside world and it's dangers" before they even get into office? Sure would help get their policy in line with the policy of aforementioned big chiefs in government seats.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
I doubt it was anonymous. Basically a bunch of script kiddies.
There are plenty of script kiddies that just call themselves anonymous, so the line is very blurry these days.
http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
Because they were promised by the vendor that the security was flawless and they believed them?
I don't get the 4chan bashing -- /b/tards might be scum, but a large chunk of 4chan's userbase is quite civil, and many don't bother going to /b/.
Well, he did promise to make what the White House does more transparent to the American voters. So maybe it was a pilot script for the new reality TV series, "Obama's House"
I wouldn't mind a pragmatic president. Perhaps that's because I'm a pragmatic guy...
I have a lot of respect for somebody like Joe Biden that says whatever he thinks, because we get a much better insight into he really is.
And that quote is fucking amazing. He said essentially that a couple times, but slightly cleaned up, for what it's worth.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
I am not much for the whole conspiracy theory BS, but if I really wanted to, underhandedly, get more funding for my department/organization it would make sense to approach the likely candidates and tell them they have a problem. Then when either candidate comes into power it would be much easier to say: "we need more funding for 'cyber-defence' to protect the country from attacks. Attacks like you fell victim to not to long ago, remember?"
On a side note, I hate the word cyber in this context.
I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.
Why would Obama or McCain have secret foreign policy plans in their campaign planning computers? The sensitive data here was most likely canvassing, financing, and advertising plans. They'd be very useful to the other campaign, or to a party supporting either campaign and planning to influence the election. Maybe unaffiliated but supportive organizations like those of T Boone Pickens and his democratic equivalent had this done.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Nonsense. The information is valuable for other reasons. It gives a third party information on who the candidate keeps around them and hints about how the candidate and his advisors think. Among other things, that'll help in future negotiations with the administration. And it'll provide avenues for social engineering. They may have obtained vetting information. And further will have some idea who to target for various espionage operations, say if someone wishes to blackmail or bribe.
To be frank, I wish he would have said that during the election. The man is smart.
The thing that irritates me the most about this election is we've got so many political parrots out there that just repeat misquotes like idiots. It's amazing how ignorant the country is and how little research is actually done for people to make a decision this important. What a dangerous position to be in.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it"
-- Aristotle
This wouldn't be a problem if our political system did not practically require politicians to keep secrets and lie through their teeth.
The US is most heavily spied upon by Israel, there's a long history of it. Unlike many who spy on the US, they don't do so to bring our system down, but to a) gain leverage to affect US policy b) learn about where we're heading c) technology (not saying its OK that their reasons are a bit less malevolent, their goals are just different) They're in the somewhat unusual situation of having the existence of their country somewhat tied to what the US does (loath they'd be to admit it, though) both directly in our policies regarding them, and our policies w.r.t. other actors in the region. Dave
>>I am so glad we won't be hearing from her at least until 2012 or so...
Ted Stevens gets re-elected; then he resigns (or is kicked out of the Senate by 2/3rds); then there will be a special election in Alaska for Senate and Palin will most likely win. She plans this already. When she found out about Stevens she said (paraphrase) "He should leave the Senate. Even if he is re-elected, he should then resign." So we will most likely see her in the Senate for the next 4 years or so. The question is: will she be like Liddy Dole who people thought was an up-and-comer but who turned out to be a drag, or like Hillary who was a massively divisive figure but who used the Senate to grow to become liked by a broad spectrum of people.
sage
To be fair, the article says the hackers were gathering "information on the evolution of both camps' policy positions", not secret foreign policy plans. But this still begs the question of your conclusion, since presumably that information is available to anyone with access to newspapers and the internet anyway. As you say, the more private version of this info might be useful to the other campaign but it's not going to be that interesting to foreign adversaries.
I mean seriously, all those paranoid big chiefs sitting in powerful seats within government organizations? They have careers to protect. Why not make whoever gets into power fearful of the "outside world and it's dangers" before they even get into office? Sure would help get their policy in line with the policy of aforementioned big chiefs in government seats.
s/government/corporate
War or no war, we will have government. Halliburton and Blackwater are the prime suspects according to the "follow the money" school of investigation which was employed to discover the Watergate crimes. Beware the military-industrial complex.
"I can't imagine how things could get any worse!" (some guy) "That could just be failure of imaginatioÂn on your p
> > Could you have imagined Obama saying that during the election?
> No... but he just went up in my estimation having read that.
As he did in mine. On the other hand, I hope he does realize that, although him changing light bulbs does not _solve_ the problem, it does _help_. And it's things that help that will eventually solve the problem. There's no magic bullet that is going to completely solve everything all at once. We solve the problem by doing the little things that bring us closer to the solution, until, one day, we find the problem is gone.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.