Some U.S. Treasury websites hacked, taken offline

By GottaLaff

Some U.S Treasury Department websites got hacked. If you happened to visit, you might have been infected. How many frequent the Treasury site? Hopefully, it isn't a real hot spot:

Four domains associated with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing were hit by a malicious attack. As a result, a bug on the site would attempt to infect visitors' PCs.

A bureau representative says the sites affected are BEP.gov, BEP.treas.gov, MoneyFactory.gov and MoneyFactory.com.

Scary. Cyber warfare is something we have yet to effectively defend against.

The affected sites were taken offline.

If you've visited any of the four ailing sites in the last couple days, you may want to get your computer checked.

After you throw it through the window.

Did Sarah Palin commit perjury during her testimony in the David Kernell trial?

By GottaLaff

Sarah Palin outside court house in Knoxville

I get emails from time to time from our pals over at Palingates, inviting me to read about their latest discoveries. They do a great job of digging up evidence that calls into question the many versions of events that Barbie McLipSchmutz passes along to the accommodating media.

They also uncover emails galore, long lost press accounts, statements, videos, you name it.

Their most recent investigation involves the email hacking trial of David Kernell at which Barbie gave testimony:

Did Sarah Palin commit perjury while giving her testimony in Knoxville? We have to put this as a question, because we don't know the exact wording of all she said and have to rely on news reports for our information.

However, there are strong indications that Palin purposely lied during her testimony.

Palingates then goes on to reveal the contents of several emails as well as conflicting quotes regarding Todd, Trig, and Bristol, and much more.

Summary:

If we look at Sarah's statements from an objective point of view, provided that the reporting in the news was correct, I strongly believe that many prosecutors would choose "GUILTY". However, this is Sarah Palin we are talking about, the woman who gets away with virtually anything. For how long still? Only God knows!

However, we won't forget Sarah's immortal words:

"I do think there should be consequences for bad behavior."

Please read all about it here.

HuckaWiki hijacked: "Mike Huckabee (THE IDIOT)"

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

Yesterday I posted about Mike Huckabee's commuting the suspected Washington shooter's sentence some years ago. That report was damaging enough on its own, but some Wikipedia readers took the information and performed the written equivalent of TPing Huck's Wiki page:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's Wikipedia page has been edited to include hostile remarks about his commutation of an individual suspected in the fatal shooting of four police officers. [...]

"WILL FOREVER BE KNOWN AS THE IDIOT WHO RELEASED THE COP KILLER MAURICE CLEMMONS HE WAS SERVING A 35 YEAR SENTENCE FOR ARMED ROBBERY THE IDIOT RELEASED HIM AFTER 9 YEARS," reads the addition made by an unknown user.

The user, or users, also added "THE IDIOT" to Huckabee's photo caption.

It's one thing to opine about Huckabee's judgment (or lack thereof). It's quite another to be childish enough to deface Wikipedia like a giggling eighth grader sneaking around behind Mom and Dad's back. Grow up, Wiki users.

GOP candidates' Twitter accounts hacked

By GottaLaff

A lot of us on Twitter have been getting what Twitter calls "Direct Messages", or DMs, that contain links that could only lead to unhappy endings. Phishing expeditions are common on Twitter.

Direct Messages are private Tweets between two people that are similar to "messages" on MySpace or Facebook, that only you and the sender can read, as opposed to open Tweets that can be read by everyone.

A couple of unlucky Republicans got hacked:

Two Republicans on Thursday became the latest victims of a "phishing attack" that has inconvenienced a number of Twitter users this week.

Followers of Florida senatorial candidate Marco Rubio were greeted for a portion of this afternoon by tweets advertising a Web site that sells colon cleansing products. Some subscribers of Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Zach Wamp's Twitter feed similarly received direct messages that them to visit a colon cleansing-related Web site.

I could make any number of tasteless jokes, but I hesitate to bring up the rear by making these two unfortunate Tweeple the butt of my craptastic jokes. So I'll butt out now, before I make an ass of myself.

Accused Palin Hacker Says Stolen E-Mails Were Public Record

By GottaLaff

Surprise!

A surprise legal maneuver by the defense in the Sarah Palin hacking case could undermine key charges carrying the stiffest potential penalties.

A lawyer for the Tennessee college student charged with hacking into the Alaska governor’s Yahoo e-mail account last year says his client couldn’t have violated Palin’s privacy because a judge had already declared her e-mails a matter of public record.

Ooo, the smart college student's lawyer is smarter than the dufus governor's lawyer.

Additionally, photos that 20-year-old David Kernell allegedly obtained of Palin and her family were not private since the Palins are “the subjects of untold numbers of photo-ops,” the lawyer argued last week, in one of a slew of motions and memorandums attacking the government’s four-count federal indictment against Kernell. [...]

Davies implies in his motion to dismiss that there are reasonable grounds to conclude that Palin’s Yahoo correspondence was a public record, and cites case law showing that information that already appears on the public record can’t be considered private.

As for photos of Palin and family members that Kernell allegedly obtained from the account, Davies says there’s no expectation of privacy for the images, because the people depicted in the photos “continue to regularly and voluntarily appear in the national media.”

Without the privacy violation, the government has no felony case, Davies argues. Therefore he wants the charge reduced to a misdemeanor.

Calls to Davies and federal prosecutors in Tennessee were not returned, but Rasch finds the argument compelling.

“He’s also saying that what was in the e-mails would ultimately have been revealed [under litigation] therefore she had no expectation of privacy in it,” says Rasch. [...]

Rasch says the argument that e-mail is not property is “interesting” but will likely fail to get the wire fraud charge dismissed. However, if the matter goes to trial, he says the attorney might be able to convince a jury that Kernell simply accessed the e-mail out of curiosity, not out of an intent to defraud.

He notes that the issue over whether e-mail constitutes property and therefore carries privacy protection is one that the laws don’t cover sufficiently.

I have no idea whether the legal arguments will be successful or not, but they certainly provide additional Palin spectator sport amusement.

CNN's Rick Sanchez hacked

By GottaLaff

Twittergate:



I'm not a fan of Rick's, but hackers are despicable. I feel for him.

BREAKING: Verizon employees hacked Obama's cell phone records

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: Now they're saying cell phone records, not cell phone. When they first broke the story, I transcribed it word for word. What can I say? Fixing the title.

UPDATE: It was Obama's personal flip-cell phone. No calls involved were from the last couple of weeks, since he gave the phone up awhile ago.

He was notified yesterday. The employees accessed his billing records, so had access to the phone numbers, both incoming and outgoing. No word if they leaked the information, nor on how many employees were involved. No word if they figured out his home number or any other numbers. They don't know the extent of this yet.

It's reminiscent of the passport breach awhile back. And Joe the Plumber's records have been violated, too.

An apology was issued.

ORIGINAL POST--
Just breaking on CNN:

The cell phone in question is not the phone he uses now, but an old one he used a few months ago. There is an investigation underway.

No Blackberry or email device was attached to it. Verizon employees went through his billing records, and could have shared his information. That is the speculation, but no facts yet to back that up. Obama has been notified, of course.

No criminal investigation by the Secret Service is being done.

Nobody monitored Obama's voice mail.

The Obama transition team is trying to downplay the criminal aspect, deciding whether to turn it over to a prosecutor.

UPDATE BY PADDY- Link to the CNN story here.

O'Reilly Blasts Hackers, Hackers Hack Him Back

Worth it for the headline alone. Yum, tasty schadenfreude.

Wired is reporting FNC anchor Bill O'Reilly's personal Web site, BillOReilly.com, has been hacked in a response to his attacks on hackers and Gawker.com this week.

"The attack was retaliation for comments that O'Reilly made on the air this week about web sites that published e-mails obtained from the Yahoo account of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, according to a press release distributed by WikiLeaks late Friday," writes Kim Zetter. The hacked material includes "names, e-mail addresses, city and state, and the password," subscribers use on his site.

Palin’s E-Mail Account Hacked, Published on Web Site

By GottaLaff

[Laffy Note: I see Paddy posted about this below, but I've included the emails, so we'll let this post stand. Sorry for the duplication otherwise.]

Say it with me: If she can't even protect her own e-mails...

In the latest of a series of invasions into Sarah Palin’s personal life, hackers have broken into the Republican vice presidential candidate’s private e-mail account, and a widely read Web site has published screen grabs from it.

An article Wednesday in Gawker.com posts family photos and snapshots of e-mail exchanges the Alaska governor had with colleagues. Gawker says the-email account has since been shut down, but it will leave the images up on its site for all to see. [...]

Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain, released a statement calling the publication a “shocking invasion of the governor’s privacy and a violation of law.” [...]

The article boasts about the lengths to which the reporter went to verify the account, saying he or she even called a phone number listed for Palin’s teenage daughter, Bristol, which apparently went to her voicemail. The site also listed dozens of contact e-mails from the account.

Both WIRED and Gawker reported that members claiming to be with a group known as Anonymous took credit for hacking into Palin’s account. Screen grabs were published on other Web sites and then deleted, Gawker reported.

They reportedly came from a Yahoo e-mail account Palin uses — one separate from another private account that was publicized in The Washington Post last week.

Gawker complained that Palin has since “deleted” the account, and suggested she was trying to “destroy evidence.”

Palin has faced scrutiny for using her private account to do government business. The Washington Post reported last week that a local Republican activist is trying to get Palin to release more than 1,100 e-mails she withheld from a public records request. The appeal reportedly questions why Palin and her aides shift between public and private e-mail accounts.

A spokeswoman in the governor’s office in Alaska declined to comment Wednesday, referring questions from FOXNews.com to the McCain-Palin campaign.

Via Gawker. There are more details here:

One, a cryptic, prayerful message from a friend Palin appointed to a nice government job. The other excerpt is maybe more enlightening: an exchange between Palin and her Lt. Governor, complaining at length about the indignities of having to defend their records to the media. Specifically, to one critical right-wing radio talk show host. If Palin can't handle that, it's no wonder she hides from the national press.

(click on image to enlarge)

First, an email from Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell (currently running to unseat Don Young in the US Congress). Sean writes Sarah to complain about Alaska talk radio host Dan Fagan. Parnell apparently told Fagan that he supported Palin's oil tax plan, called "Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share," or ACES. As a sate legislator, Parnell was anti-tax. Of course Alaska is a semi-socialist oil state, so the ACES tax is pretty standard fare, but Fagan apparently caught Parnell in the trap of having to support his governor as she taxed the beloved oil industry.

Next up, an email from Palin friend Amy McCorkell. McCorkell, of Wasilla, is an "office worker and fitness instructor" and some time "private legal investigator" hired by Palin first as an investigator with the Alaska Public Defender Agency and then appointed by Palin to the Governor's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.:

We have no clue what "choice" Amy is praying not to have to make here. Nor do we know what happened to her cushy job on the alcohol board! But we learned a lot: like newspapers are evil and should be prayed at until they go broke.

1. Bristol Palin's Voicemail
2. Sarah Palin's Personal Emails

H/t: Jack