Some thoughts on Anon and hacking and all that (as well as the culture) [View all]

[nadinbrzezinski]

So will try to spell this out.

Hackers, by their very nature, are not very trusting of officer friendly. There are good reasons. They break the law regularly. So, if ANON indeed do this, they will not go out and call officer friendly and tell him, or her. look, we got the goods on Rove, as long as you promise, cross your heart NOT to prosecute us... not even with a lawyer present.

Also, at least in California, evidence obtained while in the commission of a crime is usually not used, since... what are the words the judges like to use... oh yes, it is contaminated evidence. Maybe, where you live this happens often. But here, they like to avoid it, or use it ONLY if they have OTHER STRONGER as in MUCH STRONGER, legally obtained, read warrant, evidence.

There is one more thing. I am not saying, contrary to popular opinion, that Anon went out and did it. Their letter is tantalizing assuming it is Anon, since it has plausible events on it, that MATCH what we know from actual MEDIA coverage, read Ars Technica and other geeky sites.

What we know is that Orca was a badly designed app, using Microsoft for part of it's architecture (sloppy). We know that MS is infamous for a few back doors, designed into their products, Access is particularly bad, a product like this, I am assuming will need a Dbase app, and Access happen to be a Dbase app. Lord knows I am not a programmer but I know enough to know that. There is a reason why I would never recommend Access...

We also know is that the afternoon of the election the ISP for the campaign did shut down inbound traffic temporarily thinking they were undergoing a Denial of Service Attack. This could be sloppy programing, it could be an actual attack, or both. I don't think we'll ever know.

We also know the Users of the system were having all kinds of issues signing to the site, getting credentials and all that... we know some credential were issued that should not. That is suggestive of hacking.

We also know Karl Rove melted on Fox... I got to watch that with a bunch of republicans return night. and trust me, they were just as shocked as Karl. And in a few cases I am talking of county high level officials. It could be (this is taking the haking angle) him realizing that something was not going according to plan, or just he blew up 300 plus million. Your mileage will vary.

We also know two machines were taken off service in PA after they were recorded actually flipping the votes... CNN ran that tape, later on MSNBC. I am going to assume that this never really happen and it was the FX department at CNN...

Now all these are actual facts. Does this mean all this indicates we had hackers playing around with the system and saving the US from another stolen election? The technology exists, it is indeed possible. Can I prove it? Just as much as you really cannot prove it did not happen.

Here is a hint, yes, I have actually talked with a few hackers over the years... they are good enough these days that they will leave code behind that will errase their presence. Why I keep saying, read Neuromancer. we are there. Oh and just for fun, assuming this was a hack, the next presidential election the shadows will be even more amusing. If it was not, well I suspect Microsoft will not be used for the main architecture just in case. And that lesson should apply to BOTH parties.

If it was just a set of coincidences, well they do happen. Why I am saying it could be, not that it did, there is a difference. I know better, but I also know that this fixation on our perfect electoral system is just annoying as hell, since the system has much more obvious problems, as in real obvious... nine hours to vote... you shit me?

But serious, you think Occupiers (with good reason) distrust the authorities? You have never met a hacker. For the record the bottles of mountain dew and cheetos are not just part of the myth. Nor are the full cups of coffee, and other forms of fast food. And for some... it is the challenge of the hack... not what they get physically out of it. They are not doing it to get info out... it is... a very different mindset.

(It was part of a response, but damn it, here is a full fledge response... suffice it to say, I am not going to scream and insist that Anon saved the US from itself, but will not deny the possibility exists, like some folks are doing)