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Beto O'Rourke's Secret Membership in America's Oldest Hacking Group (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

One thing you might not know about Beto O'Rourke, the former Texas congressman who just entered the race for president is that while a teenager, O'Rourke acknowledged in an exclusive interview to Reuters, he belonged to the oldest group of computer hackers in U.S. history. From the report: The hugely influential Cult of the Dead Cow, jokingly named after an abandoned Texas slaughterhouse, is notorious for releasing tools that allowed ordinary people to hack computers running Microsoft's Windows. It's also known for inventing the word "hacktivism" to describe human-rights-driven security work.

Members of the group have protected O'Rourke's secret for decades, reluctant to compromise his political viability. Now, in a series of interviews, CDC members have acknowledged O'Rourke as one of their own. Slashdot interviewed members of the Cult of the Cow in 1999 -- which gave bizarre answers.

48 of 343 comments (clear)

  1. He would get my vote (fist post?) by turp182 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On this alone. The last Presidential race was a shit show of insane proportions (I voted, but not Dem/Repub).

    First post?

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    1. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by squiggleslash · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Warren never lied about anything. She overshared responding to an attack (her employer wrongfully listed her as a minority, she said she wasn't but mentioned in passing that she had heard there was Native American blood in her family via a distant relative, and was promptly attacked for it - despite it turning out to be true. And then she was attacked for it being true, because people were treating her proof as being something to do with providing she was a minority, which she never claimed, rather than her proving the family story was accurate.)

      Warren is politically incompetent based upon this episode, but it's inaccurate to call her a liar, just probably not Presidential material... at least, she wouldn't be in a world where the phrase "Presidential material" means anything at all, which based upon the last election is not the universe we live in.

      God I hate this timeline.

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    2. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      which she never claimed

      She sure as fuck did.

      Warren's 1986 registration card for the State Bar of Texas could put an end to all that. The Washington Post obtained a copy of the signed document in which she wrote that her race was "American Indian." This supports the two critical charges against her: that she knowingly and personally claimed Native American heritage, and that she did so for the purpose of career advancement.

    3. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Fauxcohontas got into Harvard Law School as a minority hire, due to her falsely claiming to be Cherokee. Harvard proudly touted her as the school's first woman of color. No kidding, this really happened. Without it, does she get in? Who can say? We can only say that when she got in Harvard was desperate for people just like her.

      She also contributed recipes to a cookbook called, and I am not making this up: "Pow Wow Chow". Yikes. Can you imagine? That's a career-killer for anyone but a Democrat. What if you found out one of your friends had contributed to a cookbook with an offensive name like that? Would you cut off all ties?

      But that's not even the best part of the story. She plagarized two of the recipes from a French chef. Because that's what Harvard graduates do. The dishes? Why, those traditional Cherokee meals of Cold Omelets with Crab Meat and Crab with Tomato Mayonnaise Dressing. If there had only been some clue that a French chef was copied!

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    4. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by engineereeyore · · Score: 2

      Seconded. Haven't found a candidate yet that wasn't a criminal. At least Beto has the redeeming attribute of being a hacker! My favorite t-shirt is a 2016 election shirt with the statement, "I vo(mi)ted!"

    5. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What has Beto done in his life that makes him worthy of being president? He was a rich prep-school kid who started a failed rock band, did drugs, got arrested, married a rich wife, and failed at everything he tried .... until politics. And then he lost the vote.

      Who is this guy and remind me why I should care about him?

    6. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by misexistentialist · · Score: 2

      Guess you missed the Texas bar registration in her own handwriting where she listed her race as non-white. Any argument that a politician is not a lying sociopath is doomed to failure

    7. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by fropenn · · Score: 2

      Why is "Pow Wow Chow" offensive? There are still Pow Wows held around the country and, presumably, attendees would need to eat.

      Recipes are generally not copyrightable, although passing it off as your own if you knowingly took it from someone else is a crappy thing to do.

    8. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Informative

      I look forward to seeing your blood flow.

      Trump fans are a friendly sort, no?

      Listen, pgmrdlm, promise us that if you plan on shooting up a grade school or something that you'll talk to a counselor first. Please.

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    9. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

      The term "Pow Wow" is offensive if used in any setting besides Native American ceremonies. Especially by someone wearing redface. It's like going around calling people "Chief".

      Lighten up Francis.....

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    10. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Insightful
      My reply to this has disappeared, so repeating:

      There's a difference between claiming minority status and writing that you think you have native American blood on a student card. Her DNA test showed that actually she was correct in believing she had, and didn't lie on that either.

      Her student ID wasn't the source of the controversy, it was that she was listed as being in a minority by her employer.

      (One of the most abusive types of moderation is to make people think you're arguing something that you're not, by removing clarifications. If you're thinking of abusing your mod privileges here, do me a favor: kill yourself instead. You are a net negative to people on this planet, you make things worse, and you should be utterly ashamed of yourself.)

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    11. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

      She listed herself as a minority on a legal directory reviewed by deans and hiring committees. Harvard called her their "first woman of color." At the time, Harvard was under enormous pressure to make a diversity hire.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    12. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Remember that Trump reset the bar to the presidency very low. Trump didn't do much on his own except manage to go bankrupt in the casino business, which I gather is very difficult to do. He's mostlly just a self promoter ex reality tv star with a penchant for making one-sided deals (he doesn't think it's a good deal if both sides come out ahead). He had zero experience in politics besides inventing the birther conspiracy and some earlier short-lived presidential campaigns (mostly self promotion).

      So the current state of affairs is that you no longer need to do anything to be worthy of being president in order to become president. Even further, actually having some political experience is likely to be considered a negative factor!

    13. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      I tried to go back in time and prevent the Dewey presidency, but look where that left us!

    14. Re:He would get my vote (fist post?) by quantaman · · Score: 2

      My reply to this has disappeared, so repeating:

      There's a difference between claiming minority status and writing that you think you have native American blood on a student card. Her DNA test showed that actually she was correct in believing she had, and didn't lie on that either.

      She didn't just claim Native American ancestry, she identified herself as Native American. All based on a family story of a Native ancestor several generations ago.

      That would have given her 1/8th ancestry? 1/16th? less? Sure if you've got one fully native parent, maybe even a grandparent, but a rumoured distant ancestor? What about those 15 European ancestors. I have Charlemagne as an ancestor, am I Frankish now?

      Imagine an actual Native American, dealing with all the discrimination and disadvantage that comes with that, seeing a extremely successful white woman walking around claiming to be native based on a family legend. You can hopefully understand why they got pissed off.

      Her student ID wasn't the source of the controversy, it was that she was listed as being in a minority by her employer.

      It wasn't her student ID, it was her Texas Bar application. And she was listed as a minority by her employer because she told them she was a minority, as she told many others including the authors of a Cherokee cookbook.

      There's a lot of evidence that she was deliberately identifying as Native in professional contexts. If they didn't actually counter her as a minority hire outside of a press release it's probably just because they realized there was something fishy going on and they didn't want to get in trouble if someone started asking questions.

      (One of the most abusive types of moderation is to make people think you're arguing something that you're not, by removing clarifications. If you're thinking of abusing your mod privileges here, do me a favor: kill yourself instead. You are a net negative to people on this planet, you make things worse, and you should be utterly ashamed of yourself.)

      Get off it, you have no business being outraged, you're deliberately ignoring inconvenient facts and context.

      Warren has some decent policies, and she's been a decent senator, but she did something really sketchy when she was younger.

      That doesn't mean she shouldn't be President, people can do stupid things, own up to them, and learn. But pretending she did nothing wrong when her story keeps shifting and there's so much evidence against her won't cut it.

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    15. Re: He would get my vote (fist post?) by David+Gould · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Much like with Bernie Sanders and his "trouble with Black voters", those who are desperate to tear down Elizabeth Warren latched onto something that was "not especially popular", exaggerated it into "super UNpopular", and have been obsessively trying to spin it into bring her "major (perhaps fatal?) weakness".

      --
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  2. And just like that.. by auximage77 · · Score: 2

    he secured the votes of a small generation of people, some that might be people that probably would never vote.

    1. Re:And just like that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And the oppositie just gained a butt-load of ammunition. Most of the population doesn't know what hacktivism is and would just hear "hacker" and think "criminal". Although, considering the choices last race that might not be that bad for him.

  3. Beto Created the cDc! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Beto, better known by his hacker name 0t3b, was not only a member of cDc, but the founder. After flashing an EEPROM with gamma radiation, 0t3b slammed the chip into his arm where the gamma radiation linked the chip to his bloodstream giving him uber-leet superpowers. 0t3b could now hack the gibson using only his voice and gesture controls.

    Seriously, watch out for this guy. You think a Russian agent in the White House is bad? 0t3b is literally where Russian and Chinese haxorz wannabees go to learn their skillz.

  4. Not a Republican by Kohath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If he was a Republican, you'd be hearing:

    - He's the son of a judge
    - Went to boarding school
    - Dodged burglary and DUI charges
    - He married into a Billionaire family

    But he's a Democrat, so nothing matters. Different standards. It's so important that he be judged by different standards the media won't even give you the information you need to make any other judgement.

    1. Re:Not a Republican by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      1. This is literally an article about how he was a hacker - something that Slashdot may respect but most of America thinks equals criminal.
      2. What are you talking about, all of those things are not only well-reported, they're well-reported AND well-whined about by Republicans that they're not well-reported.
      3. Different standards, right, which is why Beto has had overwhelmingly negative press coverage.
      4. Seriously, try to think beyond your partisan prejudices. You've got a narrative, and you're letting it control the things you see and hear.

    2. Re:Not a Republican by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, it is pretty well spread across Texas. That is why a number of of us are like wtf. The opinion here is he is corrupt:

      Abused eminent domain against the hispanic community for his father in law's profit
      Has a record of DWI and Burglary

  5. Windows Hacker!?!? by Temkin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh great he's a Window's guy... No way I can vote for him now...

    1. Re:Windows Hacker!?!? by gosand · · Score: 2

      Oh great he's a Window's guy... No way I can vote for him now...

      To be fair - what else were they going to hack?

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    2. Re:Windows Hacker!?!? by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 2

      To be fair - what else were they going to hack?

      SunOS. SunOS had a TCP/IP stack and a version of NFS running in 1985.

  6. Re:Does the POTUS need to pass security clearance? by grahamsz · · Score: 2

    It doesn't seem like its a hard disqualifier. Mudge was at CDC and L0pht and went on to DARPA and Google.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  7. This is bad news by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

    Our industry and community seems socially inept and has brought us such innovations as the destruction of privacy, the propagation of hate, and the commercialization of false information. And I'm supposed to feel better about Beto because he's a part of that shit?

    Not looking forward to the primaries, none of the candidates are ideal, Warren's incompetent even if her heart's in the right place, Harris has that slick tells-you-what-you-wanna-hear Obama like quality, Sanders is the Democrat's Ron Paul, and everyone else is just... urgh. Beto? Unless he backtracks and distances himself from ever being associated with jackasses like me I'm not seeing a great reason to vote for him.

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    1. Re:This is bad news by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      Nobody's young who runs for President, there's a minimum age of 35. Yes, there's a lower age of the scale, but let's not call people "young" without qualifying it, candidates for the Presidency are required by the constitution to be either close to middle age or older.

      I raise that because it does point out an inherent bias in our government. It's not the only one, but it's there.

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  8. Me too by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I still think his changing his name to pretend to be Hispanic is super stupid, but I relish the thought of a for-real hacker becoming president and having inside access to pretty much every government computer network...

    Too bad there is zero chance of a white male of any dirt getting to be the Democratic candidate.

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    1. Re:Me too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      He never changed his name. Beto is a nickname given to him when he was a child.

      Its like when people call you Shithead, it is your nickname.

    2. Re:Me too by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Informative

      He wasn't a "hacker," he joined an underground BBS group that was into writing morbid, bloody, and offensive fiction. And sharing pirated games. The group was named the Cult of the Dead Cow. It was just a writing club.

      Then a couple decades much later, one of the people from that group released Back Oriface, so they got associated with hacking/cracking. But that has absolutely nothing to do with this guy.

  9. Re:Cult of the Dead Cow... that takes me back by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and his thoughtful and nuanced policy positions

    What exactly are those? I went to his website https://betoorourke.com/ which contains absolutely nothing on his positions. There are only links to a store (one of which is placed prominently), applying for a job in his campaign, and a donating to his campaign. Is this serious?

    This guy isn't exactly giving me a reason to even consider him as a serious candidate. Also, he couldn't even beat the Zodiac killer so by the transitive property of politics that I've just invented, he wouldn't unseat Trump, so I'm not interested.

  10. Whine, whine, whine... by MikeRT · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And our (Virginia) Lt. Governor is credibly accused of forcing a woman down to suck his dick and the same people who wanted to all but literally nail Roy Moore (Republican) to a literal cross over accusations are shrieking "due process!!11!" or trying to just pretend there's no reason to even investigate.

    1. Re:Whine, whine, whine... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      shrieking "due process!!11!"

      Who exactly is doing that? Or is it just faux news telling you that everyone is.

      Patrick Hope plans to introduce articles of impeachment, and nearly every democrat of consequence has denounced him.

      From your favorite lefty news source, the NY Times:

      Virginia Lieutenant Governor Faces Eroding Support From Democrats After New Accuser Speaks

      https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/us/politics/meredith-watson-justin-fairfax.html

  11. Re:Cult of the Dead Cow... that takes me back by WaffleMonster · · Score: 2

    What exactly are those? I went to his website https://betoorourke.com/ which contains absolutely nothing on his positions.

    Beto is as useless as Kate's boyfriend in the movie Hackers. His entire job is standing on tables making captain obvious proud with motherhood and apple pie rhetoric.

  12. Re:Cult of the Dead Cow... that takes me back by bobbied · · Score: 5, Informative

    Between this, skateboarding as an adult, and his thoughtful and nuanced policy positions I think this Beto guy is pretty good.

    Being a Texas voter who was paying attention to his policy positions as he lost to Cruz, I can tell you his positions may be nuanced, but they are NOT thoughtful. What they are is focus group tested, trite policy statements which when you press them are really just a mishmash of liberal talking points. Once he gets off his stump speech scripts, he totally breaks down on content, so if you press him on details, he doesn't have them to give... Or more to the point, won't actually be pinned down on the details, because the devil is in the details and there is no way it works when you start talking detail.

    However, Beto.. AkA Robert... Does have a stage presence that is hard to match. He comes across as a natural on stage, plays to the audience well, looks good and knows how to give a speech. Reminds me of Dan Quale. He will appeal to the young crowd with his hobbies and stuff, but where the trappings are good, the substance is kind of bland.

    However, the issue here is will he win the primary. I think the answer is no, not this time around. I see him finishing up at best #3, behind Sanders and Biden, but I'll not be surprised he's out long before the likes of Warren and Harris. So Beto is in this for 2024, everybody knows he's not got a prayer in 2020.

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  13. Re:Does the POTUS need to pass security clearance? by bobbied · · Score: 2

    Does the POTUS need to get security clearance the way any other government employee would or do they get it for free by being elected? I'm pretty sure by admitting you were involved in computer hacking would jeopardize that.

    As all classified information is only classified under the authority of the POTUS (i.e. under an executive order), if you get elected to the presidency, you ARE THE authority and can grant yourself any and all accesses to classified information. So, your election is your clearance, effectively.

    This also means that the POTUS can declassify any information they wish any time they chooses. It's all classified under his/her authority anyway.

    --
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  14. Big plus from my viewpoint by zuki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Finally someone who might get technology. On that alone, I'd give him a chance FFS... instead of being stuck with the pontificating tribe elders who only see a 'series-of-tubes'.

    1. Re:Big plus from my viewpoint by OzPeter · · Score: 2

      Finally someone who might get technology. On that alone, I'd give him a chance FFS... instead of being stuck with the pontificating tribe elders who only see a 'series-of-tubes'.

      That hacker status is a double edged sword. It could be just as easily used to promote him as being tech savvy as well as being used to demonize him for being one of those scary hackers who wants steal your kidneys via the interwebs.

      Personally I am on the "great .. he has a clue" side of the fence when it comes to technology.

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    2. Re:Big plus from my viewpoint by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 2

      Yea, that was my thought... this is actually a great thing in my book! The media and people who didn't grow up in that culture will try to hang him on it, though. It's going to be a bumpy ride for him in the primaries.

  15. Re:Enough of the "Beto" stuff by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Informative

    He is just about as Latin as tuna casserole.

    The word "tuna" actually derives from the Spanish word "atún". And, while it's the wrong latin, casserole does have Latin etymology.

    --
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  16. Re:Cult of the Dead Cow... that takes me back by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Look at the quotes from his speech yesterday. He was off script and sounded exactly like Trump.

    Seth Meyer even read his transcript in Trump's voice: https://youtu.be/CuXlBSuQbMo?t...

  17. Re:Cult of the Dead Cow... that takes me back by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Funny

    Look at the quotes from his speech yesterday. He was off script and sounded exactly like Trump.

    Seth Meyer even read his transcript in Trump's voice: https://youtu.be/CuXlBSuQbMo?t...

    So you're saying that Beto is eminently electable for 2020?

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  18. And this has exactly what to do by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    with her political policies?

    I'm willing to take a candidate with a few warts when they're as on point with everything else as Warren. She's the one who got us the CFBP. Her opponents in the GOP OTOH are the ones who gutted it. Policy matters.

    Also, missing from that little story is that it did NOT advance her career. It had no bearing on her application whatsoever. She was just a dumb college kid who liked to think of herself as Native American. Like when your Aunt tells you she was descended from royalty.

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  19. This is my problem with Beto by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    everything I've heard him say sounds exactly like what I heard from Clinton (both of them). He's also backed down from Medicare for All, which is a deal breaker.

    To be blunt, if I wanted another right of center candidate I've got Harris for that. But Beto knows this. He's not running for President, he's running for the VP on a more progressive ticket. He's Biden 2.0.

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  20. Cult of the Dead Cow interview by thomst · · Score: 3

    The September 1999 cover story for the late, great Boardwatch Magazine was my interview with Sir Dystic, which took place at the house in the Oakland Hills he shared with a half-dozen other members of the Cult of the Dead Cow.

    Note that the link points to my own website, because no other web archive of the magazine from that period exists, afaik. But here's the Caltech Library citation for the article, in case you have any doubts about its provenance ...

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  21. It's got nothing to do with being a Republican by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    Beto is a favorite of the Establishment. The same folks who gave you Hillary like Beto. He's right wing on virtually all issues you can get him to comment on.

    The reason you can't get any straight answers out of him on policy is because voters are tired of the Establishment. If Hilary hadn't cheated and if her buddies at MSNBC hadn't orchestrated a campaign to ignore Bernie we'd be saying "President Bernie" right now and passing Medicare for All.

    The Establishment doesn't want to pay for you and me to have heathcare, so the buried Bernie and promoted Hillary. They're trying to do the same with Biden/Beto. Don't fall for it. It's another snow job.

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  22. His name is very confusing by TimothyHollins · · Score: 2

    If he's the Beto, when do we get the Release Candidate?