Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Linux Forcibly Installed On Congressman's Computer In Act of Terrorism

Posted by Unknown on from the rms-detained-on-hooliganism-charges dept.

fermion writes with news of Windows computers being forcefully liberated: "The campaign headquarters of Michael Grimm, a U.S. House of Representatives member from New York, were vandalized. What has not been reported everywhere is that Linux was installed on one of his computers, erasing data in the process. Is this a new attack on democracy by the open source radicals, or it is just a random occurrence?" From the article: "'In fact, one officer said to me today they see this as a crime against the government, because I am a sitting United States congressman and they take it very seriously. You know, especially in light of what happened with Gabby Giffords, we're not in the world today where we can shrug things off,' Grimm said. ... [GNU/]Linux, an open-source operating system, was installed on Grimm's computers, erasing the hard drive contents, which included polling and voter identification data. But staff had backed up the hard drive contents hours beforehand. Grimm and his staffers said the vandalism — cement blocks were thrown through the office's windows — is a cover-up for the attacks on the computers."

4 of 343 comments (clear)

  1. congressman=ruling class? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    because I am a sitting United States congressman

    Does anyone else get an air of elitism when people say things like this? "I work for the government, I'm better than you, and these things should only happen to you plebs." I feel that as long as our politicians think like this, we're doomed as a democracy.

  2. Re:There's more to this story. by Mitchell314 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, terrorism is supposed to inspire terror. It's kinda in the bloody name. While concerning, my imagination fails to give me goosebumps with this news.

    --
    I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
  3. Re:There's more to this story. by FoolishOwl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda' is just so fucking difficult. Maybe it would have worked better to have the staffer throw rocks, and a young kid wipe the hard disk.

  4. Re:Attack against Microsoft by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why do I wonder if the 'Feds' couldn't figure out that there was simply a Linux CD in the computer that was auto-booting...

    --
    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D