For all my fellow geeks out there...
....Is it just self-serving credit-taking, or did Anonymous REALLY help foil theft of the 2012 election?
Check out: http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2012/11/theft-of-election-foiled-by-anonymous.html#links
Two days after the Nov 6th election Anonymous posted an open letter. Partial text from the Letter from Anonymous explaining how they discovered Rove's election scam and blocked it from flipping the election in three key States [Ohio, Virginia and Florida] on election night follows;
“ 8 November 2012
…. We chose to take action against those who have subverted the will of the people in past elections, which resulted in terrible destruction across the globe. We began following the “digital traffic of one Karl Rove, a disrespecter of the Rule of Law, knowing that he claimed to be Kingmaker while grifting vast wealth from barons who gladly handed him gold to anoint another King while looking the other way.
After a rather short time, we identified the digital structure of Karl’s operation and even that of his ORCA. This was an easy task in that the barn doors were left open and the wind swept us inside.So what do we do with these doors? Do we leave them open and catch the thieves as they steal the prize? Or do we close them so they cannot steal the prize?Our decision -protect the citizensWe coded and created, what we call, The Great Oz. A targeted password protected firewall that we tested and refined for the past weeks. We placed this code on more than one of the digital tunnels and their destinations that Karl’s not so smart worker bees planned to use on election night. We noticed that these tunnels were strategically placed to allow for tunnel rats to race to the server sewers from three different states. Ah yes, Karl tried to make it appear that there were more than three but we quickly saw the folly of his ploy. We watched as Karl’s little boys and girls confidently ran their tests while Karl told his barons to smoke cigars.
We watched as Karl’s speared ORCA whale was beached, rotting with a strong stench across his American plalyground, unable to be resuscitated. We watched as Karl’s weak corrupters repeatedly tried to penetrate The Great Oz. These children of his were at a loss-how many times and how many passwords did they try-exactly 105.
We work without remuneration. Karl, on the other hand, takes ships of gold from barons to do their bidding. We sank those ships and we have a warning for Karl-sail again at your peril. We may just put all the evidence into a tidy little package and give it to a painfully bored nemesis hanging out in a certain embassy in London. " entire text of letter at http://www.velvetrevolution.us/...
Ted McLaughlin of Job's Anger writes:
On October 27th, I posted about alleged election rigging (link) that has possibly been going on for several elections (that would flip 10% of votes from one candidate to his opponent -- enough to swing a close election). Supposedly, this was even done in the Republican primary to help Romney win, and it was done only in very large counties with lots of votes (because the manipulation of votes would be less obvious in a large county).
Evidently some people believed this was happening, or at least could be happening -- the hacker group known as Anonymous. On November 1st, I wrote that Anonymous had published a public letter warning Karl Rove not to try and steal the election through any kind of digital manipulation. They told him they would be watching, and he would be caught if he tried anything nefarious.
Did Rove try to steal the election? Possibly. The letter above is purportedly from Anonymous (and was sent to the website Wonkette). We know the Republicans had a computer system called ORCA, which they claimed was to help them get out the vote (and which failed miserably on election day). The letter claims that ORCA had a dark side, which would allow it to tap into computers in at least three states to change votes -- and that Anonymous blocked the computer portals to those states by hacking in to the GOP computer system and erecting a firewall to prevent access on election day, insuring an honest election.
Did this really happen? Did Rove and his minions set up a system to steal votes, only to have it blocked by Anonymous? I honestly don't know (being barely computer literate myself). But I believe it is possible, and if it did happen, I hope they go ahead and release the information to the world. Here is an interesting take on the situation by Nathaniel Downes over at Addicting Info (link):
While some might consider this a random letter, or a jump to claim responsibility, if you step back and study the letter carefully a very clear message comes out.
They cite specific numbers. They state precisely how many tunnels are there. They cite how many passwords were attempted. But, there are key words which look innocent but, to a computer engineer, are very much a trigger.
These phrases are (our emphasis):
We noticed these tunnels were strategically placed to allow for tunnel rats to race to the sewer servers from three different states.
Now, to a normal person a rat is just that: a furry animal or a slang term for a scoundrel. But to a computer person, a rat is something radically different, a r.a.t. hack. The Remote Administration Tool hack is a method of remotely accessing a machine as if it were local. Using such a hack, you would have full access to the machine, at a level someone physically at the machine may not have. A “sewer server” is a term used to denote a hack over a secured tunnel, known as a Secured SHell (SSH), using a form of encryption designed to make it appear to be innocent background traffic.
This is not some general discussion, making claims in order to claim. They have released clear and specific details on what exactly was done, information which the people behind Orca can verify. Even more telling, however, is the name the group used for their denial of service attack:
The Great Oz
“Oz” refers to the land in the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz; more currently, it refers to the television show Oz, which is about a prison. And the actions the group took was to attempt to hack the election into jail, locking it away. It broke, absolutely. We reported on the failures of Orca (link) and its public face earlier. What Anonymous is claiming is that Orca’s public face was a farce, a lie. It was not to coordinate poll challengers so much as to steal the election.
The little cherry on top, however, is the hint that Anonymous not only blocked the operation, but kept copies of the code and data from Orca and are planning on leaking it to wikilinks. If and when this happens, you know AI will be there.
_______________________________________________________________
What can I say. It's a possibility.
I do believe certain previous recent elections have been stolen, and there is even evidence to that effect: David Siegel, the billionaire Florida real estate mogul behind timeshare company Westgate Resorts, claims that he was "personally responsible" for George W. Bush's 2000 presidential victory. When the subject comes up in a newly released documentary ("The Queen of Versailles"), Siegel declines to elaborate, stating, "it may not necessarily have been legal." Reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/david-siegel-george-w-bush-election_n_1725152.html
Check out: http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2012/11/theft-of-election-foiled-by-anonymous.html#links
Two days after the Nov 6th election Anonymous posted an open letter. Partial text from the Letter from Anonymous explaining how they discovered Rove's election scam and blocked it from flipping the election in three key States [Ohio, Virginia and Florida] on election night follows;
“ 8 November 2012
…. We chose to take action against those who have subverted the will of the people in past elections, which resulted in terrible destruction across the globe. We began following the “digital traffic of one Karl Rove, a disrespecter of the Rule of Law, knowing that he claimed to be Kingmaker while grifting vast wealth from barons who gladly handed him gold to anoint another King while looking the other way.
After a rather short time, we identified the digital structure of Karl’s operation and even that of his ORCA. This was an easy task in that the barn doors were left open and the wind swept us inside.So what do we do with these doors? Do we leave them open and catch the thieves as they steal the prize? Or do we close them so they cannot steal the prize?Our decision -protect the citizensWe coded and created, what we call, The Great Oz. A targeted password protected firewall that we tested and refined for the past weeks. We placed this code on more than one of the digital tunnels and their destinations that Karl’s not so smart worker bees planned to use on election night. We noticed that these tunnels were strategically placed to allow for tunnel rats to race to the server sewers from three different states. Ah yes, Karl tried to make it appear that there were more than three but we quickly saw the folly of his ploy. We watched as Karl’s little boys and girls confidently ran their tests while Karl told his barons to smoke cigars.
We watched as Karl’s speared ORCA whale was beached, rotting with a strong stench across his American plalyground, unable to be resuscitated. We watched as Karl’s weak corrupters repeatedly tried to penetrate The Great Oz. These children of his were at a loss-how many times and how many passwords did they try-exactly 105.
We work without remuneration. Karl, on the other hand, takes ships of gold from barons to do their bidding. We sank those ships and we have a warning for Karl-sail again at your peril. We may just put all the evidence into a tidy little package and give it to a painfully bored nemesis hanging out in a certain embassy in London. " entire text of letter at http://www.velvetrevolution.us/...
Ted McLaughlin of Job's Anger writes:
On October 27th, I posted about alleged election rigging (link) that has possibly been going on for several elections (that would flip 10% of votes from one candidate to his opponent -- enough to swing a close election). Supposedly, this was even done in the Republican primary to help Romney win, and it was done only in very large counties with lots of votes (because the manipulation of votes would be less obvious in a large county).
Evidently some people believed this was happening, or at least could be happening -- the hacker group known as Anonymous. On November 1st, I wrote that Anonymous had published a public letter warning Karl Rove not to try and steal the election through any kind of digital manipulation. They told him they would be watching, and he would be caught if he tried anything nefarious.
Did Rove try to steal the election? Possibly. The letter above is purportedly from Anonymous (and was sent to the website Wonkette). We know the Republicans had a computer system called ORCA, which they claimed was to help them get out the vote (and which failed miserably on election day). The letter claims that ORCA had a dark side, which would allow it to tap into computers in at least three states to change votes -- and that Anonymous blocked the computer portals to those states by hacking in to the GOP computer system and erecting a firewall to prevent access on election day, insuring an honest election.
Did this really happen? Did Rove and his minions set up a system to steal votes, only to have it blocked by Anonymous? I honestly don't know (being barely computer literate myself). But I believe it is possible, and if it did happen, I hope they go ahead and release the information to the world. Here is an interesting take on the situation by Nathaniel Downes over at Addicting Info (link):
While some might consider this a random letter, or a jump to claim responsibility, if you step back and study the letter carefully a very clear message comes out.
They cite specific numbers. They state precisely how many tunnels are there. They cite how many passwords were attempted. But, there are key words which look innocent but, to a computer engineer, are very much a trigger.
These phrases are (our emphasis):
We noticed these tunnels were strategically placed to allow for tunnel rats to race to the sewer servers from three different states.
Now, to a normal person a rat is just that: a furry animal or a slang term for a scoundrel. But to a computer person, a rat is something radically different, a r.a.t. hack. The Remote Administration Tool hack is a method of remotely accessing a machine as if it were local. Using such a hack, you would have full access to the machine, at a level someone physically at the machine may not have. A “sewer server” is a term used to denote a hack over a secured tunnel, known as a Secured SHell (SSH), using a form of encryption designed to make it appear to be innocent background traffic.
This is not some general discussion, making claims in order to claim. They have released clear and specific details on what exactly was done, information which the people behind Orca can verify. Even more telling, however, is the name the group used for their denial of service attack:
The Great Oz
“Oz” refers to the land in the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz; more currently, it refers to the television show Oz, which is about a prison. And the actions the group took was to attempt to hack the election into jail, locking it away. It broke, absolutely. We reported on the failures of Orca (link) and its public face earlier. What Anonymous is claiming is that Orca’s public face was a farce, a lie. It was not to coordinate poll challengers so much as to steal the election.
The little cherry on top, however, is the hint that Anonymous not only blocked the operation, but kept copies of the code and data from Orca and are planning on leaking it to wikilinks. If and when this happens, you know AI will be there.
_______________________________________________________________
What can I say. It's a possibility.
I do believe certain previous recent elections have been stolen, and there is even evidence to that effect: David Siegel, the billionaire Florida real estate mogul behind timeshare company Westgate Resorts, claims that he was "personally responsible" for George W. Bush's 2000 presidential victory. When the subject comes up in a newly released documentary ("The Queen of Versailles"), Siegel declines to elaborate, stating, "it may not necessarily have been legal." Reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/david-siegel-george-w-bush-election_n_1725152.html