Posted on 09/17/2008 11:15:26 AM PDT by Domandred
Mod note: Do no post any screenshots of Governor Palin's Yahoo account on Free Republic.
Thank you.
On the heels of media reports that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was using a private Yahoo e-mail account (gov.palin@yahoo.com) to conduct Alaska state business, hackers have broken into the account and posted evidence of the hijack on Wikileaks.
An activist group calling itself ‘anonymous’ claimed responsibility for the compromise and released screenshots, photographs and the e-mail addresses of several people close to Palin, including her husband Todd and assistant Ivy Frye.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.zdnet.com ...
PLEASE let it flow back to the DNC an the highest levels of the Obama campaign. PLEASE let this be our watergate - but we have to make sure it happens before he gets elected and serves three years.
Read my first post. I said that most of the blame rests with the criminals that broke into the governor's email. That said, just like leaving your keys in your car, using a mail service with a poor security record is unwise.
Any email system that you don't have physical security over is inherently not secure. In some of my other posts I detailed how one goes about fixing that problem.
I hate hackers with a PASSION. The internet and email could revolutionize this country many magnituted more than it already has, but businesses and individuals avid making that leap because THEY CAN’T TAKE THE RISK WITH THE LAWBREAKERS OUT THERE WHO COULD SINK THEM.
Of course, the "hackers" are the guys that invented the Internet and are currently making it better. But why screw up a good mindless rant with the facts?
Hackers should get the death penalty, and no, I am NOT kidding.
Good luck with that. And good luck on learning how the Internet works.
I guess this means that McCain is the SMART one...by not even
using e-mail. There is something to be said about being
computer illiterate! LOL!
I hope that the perps here are caught and strung up by their............um...........thumbs?
That was my first thought!
After your 3rd or 4th post where you glossed over what the hackers did and chastized Palin for using yahoo, I got angry.
I’m well aware of how the internet works. I’m also well aware that a large subset of it’s users want to keep it “free” so that they can use it as their personal playground, hacking, spamming, spyware, etc... included.
Excuse my anger, it is not directed at you personally.
I pay for an ISP to give me email access. I should NOT have to pay extra money (in software spyware protection and anti-virus software) to prevent CRIMINALS from sending me malicious, damaging infected email or prevent hackers/scripters from access information for which theyhave NO LEGAL RIGHT TO ACCESS.
The US government has basically let the “techno-nerds” run amok in cyberspace because of the hue and cry from those same people who decry government over-regulation.
If a corporate CEO wants to contract you to “hack” into his systems to check his security, fine. I have no problem with that. But if you try to access any bit of unauthorized information you should be sent to prison for LENGTHY prison terms.
The virus writers, spammers, spyware writers, scripters, data-miners and all of the unauthorized intruders into computers are costing theis country untold BILLIONS of dollars.
I did not "gloss over" the criminal behavior. I simply didn't think it needed any elaboration. But since you do, let me be more clear:
The people that broke into the email account, just like people who steal cars, should go to jail.
People who use services with poor security records, like people who leave the keys in their cars, deserve some of the blame.
I pay for an ISP to give me email access. I should NOT have to pay extra money (in software spyware protection and anti-virus software) to prevent CRIMINALS from sending me malicious, damaging infected email or prevent hackers/scripters from access information for which theyhave NO LEGAL RIGHT TO ACCESS.
I paid for a truck. It's a 1987. How DARE Toyota not retro fit air bags and the latest safety features into my purchase!!!!
Look. Security is expensive. If you want cheap access don't whine that it's not secure.
The US government has basically let the “techno-nerds” run amok in cyberspace because of the hue and cry from those same people who decry government over-regulation.
The U.S. Government does not own the Internet. They have no say in how it is run. And that's a good thing.
If a corporate CEO wants to contract you to “hack” into his systems to check his security, fine. I have no problem with that. But if you try to access any bit of unauthorized information you should be sent to prison for LENGTHY prison terms.
An interesting theory. But before I comment further, please define "access."
If a webmaster accidentally posts confidential information on a company website and I download it, is that a crime?
If I discover that a company has been stupid enough to dump their confidential data onto an FTP server that has no password set, or uses the default password for the anonymous account, and I download it, is that a crime?
The virus writers, spammers, spyware writers, scripters, data-miners and all of the unauthorized intruders into computers are costing theis country untold BILLIONS of dollars.
Actually, the people that make the crap operating system that allows spyware, spam and viruses to operate is the guilty party. Odd how many other operating systems have almost no problem with such things but the dominant one is flat eaten up with them.
I appreciate you zeal in wanting to make the guilty party pay. I just think you need to examine your targets more carefully.
The people you are deriding often have the noblest of goals. At first. Here's an example of how resolving security problems usually goes:
Hacker: What's this? If you send this string of data to this piece of software across the Internet, you can gain access to every file on the server's hard drive!
Hacker emails the company that wrote the software: Hey, I found this thing. Here's what happens. Here's how to duplicate it. You might want to fix it.
Company: --silence--
(2 weeks later.)
Hacker emails the company again: Hey, sent you information about a security problem. If I can find it, someone else can too. Please fix it.
Company: --silence--
Hacker emails a security blog with the data: Hey, I tried to reach the company but they wouldn't answer. Here's what I found.
Company: OMG! WTF! You evil hax0r! How dare you reveal our security problem! Prepare to be vanquished. RELEASE THE FLYING MONKEYS!
Hacker: ???
Company lawyers: Dear Hacker, we'll be taking everything you own and then recommending jail time.
Hacker: WTF!
Next Hacker: Hey, look what I found. A security problem.
Next Hacker thinks about his buddy Hacker....
Next Hacker sends a description of the problem and a sample exploit to a security blog anonymously.
Pimply-Faced Youth trolls the security blogs...
PFY downloads the exploit code, breaks into a company using the software and posts the company's confidential data.
People like you: OMG! Evil Hax0rs!!!! Kill them!
The posting was no accident. The Webmaster knew that the information was illegally obtained.
The web master should go to jail along with everyone who copied the material and passed it on.
Actually LARGE fines would probably suffice, but they have to be large enough to hurt.
Of course I don’t condone breaking into anyone’s email account for any reason, but my goodness. I don’t see many comments about how it’s quite stupid, using Yahoo for “governor business.”
Oh, almost certainly.
The web master should go to jail along with everyone who copied the material and passed it on.
Good luck with that if the webmaster is in Russia.
The Internet is not US territory. If you want to be safe, you can't go running to Uncle Sam. You have to educate yourself on how to be safe and take steps to protect yourself.
O’Reilly says that he knows who the web master was. He says that everyone knows who they are. If O’Reilly knows, the fed know.
And if the webmaster is not in the US? Then what? Air strike?
Well, maybe it’s not the web “master”, but he knows who owns the web site, and he’s not in Russia. He’s one of the well known far left web bloggers.
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Just because the site owner is within reach does not make him liable.
If the Feds are going to grab anyone it's going to have to be the person that actually posted the information.
I don't think anyone here is suggesting that the lion's share of the blame doesn't fall squarely on the people that illegally accessed the account. And that those people should be prosecuted if they can be found.
There do seem to be a lot of people here that think that ONLY the perpetrators are responsible for what went on and that people who use services that are known to be full of security problems shouldn't be criticized for using them.
Well, what the heck—hacking her website may be illegal, put it proved she has nothing to hide. Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Onada and Biden are deeply saddened.
This is what liberals do.
I helped out down at Walter Reed one time with the DC chapter, and the Code Pinkos were up the street.
At one point I saw this scrawny woman wearing a t-shirt and running shorts walk by, and I was a bit taken aback, because she looked like she was either abusing drugs or on medication if I was able to judge by the vacuous look on her face. With apologies to those who take lithium, she looked like she was on a high dose of it.
She walked right by the main entrance to Walter Reed past our parked cars, then veered right out in the street against the light nearly causing an accident.
When I asked someone, they said that she was taking pictures of our license plates to post on the Internet.
My first thought was that she could kiss my white shiny butt.
That initially demonstrated to me how much liberals are completely unaware of the the motives that drive conservatives, and how different they are from their own, er...motives.
But then after some consideration, I realized it was not that they thought we would be ashamed. It was simply malicious. They apparently hoped that someone would use that data to gain access to our personal information, engage in identity theft or simply visit vandalism or violence on us.
This is the model of the liberals.
In this case, the web owner was fully aware of what was posted on his site.
The feds grabbed Jim McDermott for passing on taped phone calls of Newt Gingrich. It’s pretty much the same thing. The site owner was fully aware of what was going on. O’Reilly says that anyone who down loaded the private information can also be liable.
Actually, it's not.
If the website had been set up specifically to post the data, then yes.
But a general purpose board where anyone can post anything? Unlikely that the owner is liable.
O’Reilly says that anyone who down loaded the private information can also be liable.
O'Reilly is full of it.
On the Internet "looking at something" and "downloading something" are the same thing. Your computer downloads this webpage and then displays it.
There is no chance that people that showed up and looked at the data can be held liable.
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