Security Breach to Ohio SOS Website. OH State Highway Patrol to assist in Investigation

[mod mom]

October 20, 2008
For Immediate Release
Secretary of State Website Temporarily Taken Down for Security Purposes

Ohio State Highway Patrol will assist with investigation

Columbus, Ohio - Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner announced on
Monday afternoon that the state website has been set in a static mode with
limited functionality as a precaution. The Ohio State Highway Patrol will
assist with an investigation of one or more security breaches detected by
the Secretary of State.

"Due to security concerns experienced by the Secretary of State's website,
full functionality of the website has been suspended to protect the
integrity of state records and data. Full functionality will be restored
when we are assured that all data has been protected to acceptable levels of
security," said Secretary of State Brunner.

"Our focus is and has always been to protect the vote of every eligible Ohio
voter from any kind of fraud, be it voter registration fraud, illegal voting
or vote suppression. This action has been taken to detect and prosecute any
illegal breach of our voting infrastructure to maintain voter confidence,"
said Secretary Brunner.

Unfortunately, this is not the first instance of direct assault on the
operations of the Secretary of State's office. In recent weeks, phone lines
and e-mail channels have been barraged, even in the business filings section
of the office, with menacing messages and even threats of harm or death.
Last week, a suspicious package covered with threatening messages and
containing an unidentified powder was mailed to the Secretary of State's
office via the previous location of the Client Services Center. These
incidents are also under investigation.

The Secretary of State's office will continue to work in the best interest
of Ohio voters and the boards of elections as we continue our preparation
for a successful election.

-30-

Media Contacts:

Jeff Ortega, Assistant Director of Communications - Media, [phone].
Kevin Kidder, Media Relations Coordinator, [phone]

[Gman]

1. Right wingers are cockroaches

they hide. They're afraid to do what they do in the light of day and in front of everyone. They are the most base and spineless of any political creature around. Think about it. They championed a war they knew was based on lies. Then they sat back and never had to deal with the consequences of their actions. There are so very many more instances when right wingers have to hide. That's how they operate. THey are scared and they are spineless jellyfish. Even Rush hides behind his microphone... they all hide and do their dirty work. FR is full of anonymous jellyfish.

[kegler14]

3. Right winders are nuts and dishonest.

Over on FR they are already claiming Democrats did this so they'd have something to use to challenge a McCain win. This is their lame response to anything ugly that Republicans do.

[Ian David]

2. The Republican Party is a Domestic Terrorist organization. n/t

[mod mom]

4. "denial of service" attack: “How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative”?

I didn't read this book, but maybe someone here did and would like to further comment on this:

A comment posted on this:

My guess is there may at least be what are called “denial of service” attacks taking place on the Ohio Secretary of State’s website and office. This type of operation was detailed by Republican operative and convicted felon Allen Raymond in his book, “How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative”

[USofFascism]

5. Thank You ModMom and Others

ModMom has always been my favourite poster. I know I am low on the post total, so who knows how long I will last, or if people will trust me, but for now, thanks for keeping up the good fight.

[yourout]

6. Anyone want to guess what files they were after?

[mod mom]

7. Thank you USof Fascism

for your kind words, and a BIG WELCOME to (at least posting on) DU :hi:

As my email sign line says:

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
Barack Obama -IT'S UP TO US!

[USofFascism]

8. You're Welcome

I will probably get the boot at any moment. I wish DU would show me some love and amnesty, but I have no illusions. I used to post here a lot in another section getting up to about 100 posts. I didn't do anything wrong but stick up for myself. I didn't curse. One of the mods I guess didn't like how I kept adding poster after poster to my ignore list. Other folks seem to be able to break rules left and right and never get in trouble or tombstoned. It stinks to have to screenshot every post too, when I have returned like this, knowing that at any point they could be deleted with the name removed.

I am the person who dug deep into the Steven Hertzberg story, securing evidence that he was a prolific poster at a disinformation website. Such a finding made it plausible to think of him as being some form of astroturfer. At the beginning of my research, I found posts by yourself which helped me cut to the chase. I tried to get BradBlog to cover this story, but it was no shirt, no shoes, then no dice.

You showed an uncanny knack for asking the right questions. You even uncovered his military ties at his now scrubbed vanity website hertzberg.org.

I am not a troll. If I get banned, then I probably won't be back. But if DU scrubs any of my posts, including this one, then all bets are off.

If I was a real troll, I wouldn't keep making it obvious who I am. I want DU to either show what I did to get tombstoned or to let me have full privileges again.

There's a fundamental reason why we shouldn't have a death penalty. What if a mistake was made? How can the mistake be corrected?

I realise DU has to be strict about keeping banned people out. I've tried to go the proper channels. I even emailed the top admins asking them to reconsider. I got no reply. I am not a bad kid and deserve better treatment than received from this place.

I also realise none of ye will be able to afford to respond to this post, except perhaps for the thing about Hertzberg. If I am tombstoned yet my recent posts are preserved, then I am out of here, no problemo. If any of these posts get scrubbed, then DU will continue to be in my mind a closed, rigged shop. Come on DU. Either prove I am a troll or let me stay. or at least don't touch these posts.

Peace, Socrates

:hippie:

[mirror wall]

9. Why is the hiway patrol handling the investigation?

Is it just me, or does this make no sense at all?