Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
Ron Paul Campaign Under Cyber Attack The recently reported spam emails that are believed to originate from a botnet do the Ron Paul campaign direct harm not good.by Michael McDonnough
(libertarian)
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
There has been a recent flurry of news articles that have made the conjecture that the Ron Paul campaign or his supporters are in possession of a botnet and are using it to generate spam emails for the candidate. I have been in the business of computer technology for a long time and have good friends in the IT security business and we have discussed this at length. Cui-bono (who benefits)
I find it far more likely that this botnet spam attack is not the design of the Paul campaign or any of its supporters. It is far more likely that this is the release of a first round of direct cyber attack against the Ron Paul campaign. I base this opinion on the fact that the attack is becoming clearly targeted at the youtube videos of Ron Paul. Youtube links to his videos are beginning to be inserted into the the body of these spam message and as a direct result the video's are being pulled by youtube for violation of their terms of use policy.
This attack method can do far more harm than good for the Ron Paul campaign. I have consulted with some experts that I highly respect and they indicate that the likely source for the botnet attack is a paid operation originating from Eastern European or Asian organized crime organizations so I would venture that someone from another campaign that has some connections ordered this attack.
I expect that after these attackers have used this method to remove the best google and youtube videos touting the Ron Paul campaign, that the attack method will change and will then go after other key components of the campaign's online strength such as the Web 2.0 communities. These utilities will likely be spammed and the organizations using the applications will be banned from their use.
This is nefarious and demonstrates the kind of tactics that the establishment could use to serve their interest in stopping the advance of Ron Paul and the Revolution for freedom that he is leading as well as his Presidential bid. I can only hope that the Ron Paul online army has some equally talented cyber warriors that can help stop this attack before it is ramped up even further.
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I bet it's probably coming out of Giuliani's camp. He's trying to smear Paul. I also find it funny that Fox News has written about it on their website. They haven't written about Paul in ages. This smells fishy to me.
The Ron Paul campaign is on a roll there is no stopping us. The supporters of Ron Paul are like no other. LIVE FREE OR DIE. I know the attacks are coming :(
I think the article is dead on . There are a few RP supporters who will let the first few transgressions pass(myself incuded). I dont really think whoever is behind this wants to find out the talents of just a few of the RP faithful. There is no cover from the light of day and I would be more than happy to take part in bringing the perps out . Got the laptop ready , Backtrack loaded ....keep playin silly games. RP is our next Pres. anyway. I find it so lame that whoever this 1337 (LMAO) person or persons are they stoop to spam... sKrIpt kIdDi3s
My first thought was that the spam just used his name - to get people to open the mails... Then - seeing the content of the messages - my guess was that a well-intentioned (and foolish) RP supporter produced the spam in an effort to get past the main-stream media.
One more thought occured to me was that someone in another country 'did what they could' for the effort (again, foolishly).
It didn't occur to me that this could be used as an attack on Ron Paul. And really, I don't think it was. There is no way to tell... if a supporter did it, of course they would link to 'good' RP videos (i didn't know they could be pulled from youtube because of spam)... If it where an attack, why take the chance that Ron's message would get out there?
One more possibility would be other world governments trying to do good or bad for the campaign (some extremists might not want Ron's foriegn policy... and others would...)
Posted By: And the GOOD NEWS IS:
Date: 2007-11-01 01:49:45
The good News is that most Ron Paul Supporters are Smarter people who knows and have an idea of what is Really going on in the country! so, smarters are harder to fall for this.
Posted By: Scott McDonnell
Date: 2007-11-01 02:41:01
For sure, a couple of days before the last debate, several bloggers were declaring 'war' on Ron Paul and his supporters. At the debates, a free republic regular got himself into the fox focus group and made the statement that Ron Paul was "cerifiably insane."
Then we had the Don Black stuff, the bannings, a couple of set up videos on youtube, etc..
Is it really any question that this is one tactic in the 'Global War on Ron Paul?" Of course, the good part is that they have now committed a crime! We need to track these spam emails down somehow and teach these a*holes a lesson.
Government, your congressman and mine, is threatened by Paul and this campaign, as they should be. You better believe they see their political lives hanging in the balance. If Paul wins, everything and I mean everything changes. Undoubedly many if not all sitting congressmen would be replaced once honesty catches on.
Just food for thought. Now, back to the revolution.
I'm not going to conjecture here, instead, I'm thinking it may be better to warn. I can very much see both scenarios for what happened, but yours makes more sense. So, I would warn people to be on the lookout for phishing attempts into Myspace, Facebook and other online communities. What could happen is the phisher gets your account and then violates the terms and services of contract, and the account is deleted while putting a bad name on Ron Paul. p.s. don't open anything with strange letters at the end.
I'm more suspicious of Clinton than Guliani. They are similar enough that the polls are showing Republican defectors -- especially women -- voting for Hillary. Guliani represents the death knell of the Republican Party, but they're either too blind or too stubborn to see Paul as the savior he could be for them. If they were smart, they'd embrace Paul as their path back to paleo-conservatism.
Clinton, on the other hand, has good reason to fear Paul. He can crush her by simply holding up the Constitution and saying, "please explain yourself." And let's not forget that the MSM has already selected Clinton; if they are behind this (and I believe they are), it is on Hillary's behalf, not Rudy's.
I read the original Wired story. It was talking about EMAIL. Ron Paul's on-line support has been manifested through Facebook, Youtube, meetup groups, post-debate polling, responses in blog comments sections, and on-line fund-raising. None of these can be "spammed" with automated email. In fact, email doesn't even use the same communications protocol. Yet some of the anti-Ron Paul media (notably, Fox and USAToday) have extrapolated from this story of email spamming to imply that ALL of his on-line support has been generated through some sort of illegal automated process. This is nothing but another smear. You can't automate all that stuff -- and I wish somebody with some technical expertise would point that out. And I'm getting tired of hearing about how Ron Paul's supporters are "spamming" comments sections and on-line polls. "Spam" refers to automated emails. Just because a lot of people respond so some idiotic post on Redstate, it doesn't mean they're "spamming".
How to Whip This Ron Paul Character and All His Whacky Followers.
Ron Paul can be defeated by ignorance. Ignore him if you can. By lies. Misrepresent his positions whenever possible. By word gaming. As Lenin advised, “First, confuse the vocabulary.” By contempt. Dismiss him as amusing and pathetic. By smearing his supporters. Find the worst and spotlight them. Call them a cult. By consensus. Dismiss him with peer-pressure ridicule. By false accusations. Spread them quickly and far. By never discussing his policies. Change the subject to his person. By the polls. Ask the right people the right questions and get the answer you want. By reporting his most unpopular votes. But don’t report his reasoning. By rudeness. Wreck any debate where his ideas are winning. With all these tools, he can be easily defeated. Use them generously.
But Ron Paul cannot be defeated by refuting him in an honest and courteous technical debate. Avoid that.
If I were the Ron Paul supporter that had the talent to cyber investigate this I would make an all out effort to discover just who was doing this. Put together all the info that I had gathered up and present it to the news media. This would hopefully prove that not only are the Republican leadership committing illegal acts to keep him from being the nomminee but that the RP supporters aren't fudgeing the numbers that show RP support is much higher than they (the republican leadership) wants to admit that it is.
Let’s see Ron Paul garners over 5 million last quarter, and gets no atttention. Ron Paul is for bringing our troops home from Iraq, and gets no attention. Ron Paul is the only candidate running for President who voted not to attack Iraq, and gets no attention. Ron Paul garnered more money from the Military than any one else, and gets no attention. Ron Paul garnered more money from the Military than all the rest of the Republicans combined who are running for President, and gets no attention. Ron Paul is for balancing the budget, and gets no attention, Ron Paul has never ever voted to raise taxes, and gets no attention, Ron Paul is the only candidate that speaks the truth and gets no attention.Some one (Who is that someone?) Does anybody know? spams Ron Paul and this person gets more attention. than Ron Paul has ever gotten. This isn’t even a story!!!! Perhaps this story might be good for Ron Paul, as he is finally getting some attention. Just google Ron Paul, and find out what a Great human being this man is!!!!
Really, you guys need to drop the persecution complex. Ron Paul is one of about a thousand topics that the mainstream media isn't covering in depth, which is an outrage, but you're not being singled out. I really doubt that Katie Couric is going to cover this stupid botnet story, either.
I believe that we are now right between 50/50 between the "laugh at you" & "fight you" phases. Once Nov5th is a sucess, more fighting will come as you can't "spam" cash with bots. NH primary will tell the tale. I just hope there is a ton of observers making sure that it's not rigged. They need to do some serious exit polling that day. In fact Ron supporters will need to do that at every primary. And if the exit polls don't reflect the outcome, some serious protest will need to get going. Thats when the real fight phase will start.
Steve, I think they've been in the "fight Paul" mode ever since Ghoulie took aim and fired at Paul in the first debate. The fight will be dirty, and I'm beginning to fear that if current campaign funding goals are met, something untoward may befall our dark horse (who must be extremely unpopular with the corporate recipients of hundreds of billions in federal spending)-- at what point do candidates fall under the protection of the Secret Service?
I'm not sure I want the Secret Service protecting him, or anywhere near him. They have bosses too, and they aren't going to be in favor of the man either...
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