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The story behind the Palin e-mail hacking
- biohacker42 18y agoHN getting the back story from Michelle Malkin? Tea and crumpets what's next!
- hugh 18y agoOrdinarily I wouldn't approve of postings coming from a political site such as michellemalkin, but the message she quotes actually probably contains the best summary I've seen of what actually happened.
- unalone 18y agoYeah. I think it helps that she didn't actually WRITE this. She put it up without commentary. The result is that we actually get the story directly from a reliable source, without any coloring.
- silentbicycle 18y agoThe quoted post is also pretty insightful, all things considered: "Anonymous is not a group of hackers. Anonymous is more like gremlins. They are hyperactive adolescents in search of amusement and joy, which they often get by upsetting people and making messes. That’s what was happening here." Which applies to script kiddies in general, really. (Maybe some day the media will understand this.) I think "gremlins" is a good term - they're not necessarily kids (or using scripts, these days), and it doesn't imply competence: they're just acting destructive because they're bored.
- froo 18y agoFor those who know anything about the Warhammer "Universe"... I find Anonymous are basically like the Ork Race. They will continually fight amongst themselves until something riles them up or a someone suggests an idea (like a very temporary leader), then they will and go off to mess with something (Waaaagggh!) until they finally get bored of that and go back to fighting amongst each other. I find that's the best way to think about it. There is no real motivation for doing what they do apart from the relief of boredom, it's just a swirling maelstrom of conflict. The only thing you would want to do is not give them a reason to direct it anywhere.
- silentbicycle 18y agoI don't know the game, but I follow...
- sown 18y agoThis is how most of humanity reacts to internet access.
- iamdave 18y agoI wouldn't use the phrase script kiddies to describe 4chan since a great deal of them actually know what they're doing, I'd be so bold to say the overwhelming majority actually are very intelligent on what they're doing.
- silentbicycle 18y agoIt's neutral on whether they're intelligent or not, the idea is that they're mischievous and destructive because they're bored.
- iamdave 18y agoWell sure, I appreciate your point but don't forget that some of the biggest innovative breakthroughs that we use to this day came from hackers being bored and doing things they shouldn't. Those were probably considered destructive then. Now, I'm not condoning what this person did. I'm not saying go around trying to gain unauthorized access to a politician's computer; but instead we've got to look at these things from multiple angles instead of immediately jumping on the 'These actions are purely irresponsible and negative', true enough.
- brk 18y agoTotally agree. I was mildly surprised that the core story was devoid of injected bias or spin. It seemed to be the best overall summary of the incident that I had seen so far.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- waitwhatwhoa 18y agoJust remember, someone could've posted "DISREGARD THAT I SUCK COCKS" as the first reply to that message using the same credentials and it would be just as verifiable. As ars points out (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080918-alleged-1st-person-tale-of-palin-e-mail-hack-comes-and-goes.html http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080918-alleged-1st-pe...): While the account is plausible enough on its face—and, if true, highlights the special vulnerability of such password reset mechanisms for public figures—there are also some reasons for skepticism. The post was made under the handle "rubico," and linked to a similar e-mail address. Through a bit of Google searching, it is trivial to link that handle and e-mail to a real person—a student with ties to state-level Democratic politics. And while it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility, it does strain credibility somewhat to think that, after committing the most publicized computer intrusion in recent memory, the perpetrator would effectively return to the scene to deliver a signed confession. Equally possible, then, is that either the real hacker oran unrelated party with an active imagination decided to play a prank on the student in question.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- froo 18y agoUmm, someone I know who frequents 4chan just IM'd me, there might be something brewing. Apparently someone just uploaded "full emails on rapidshare" with 3 passwords on it, first 2 passwords work but last one is currently unknown. Will be interesting to see if it's real or fake.
- snorkel 18y agoI picture a teenager using a Tina Fey as Sarah Palin soundboard to talk to Yahoo Support... "I can see Russia from my house!"