Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Did I call the shot or what?

In previous posts, I gave my view that the Ashley Madison hackers -- the so-called Impact Team -- were political operatives disguised as "Anonymous"-style anarchists. A few days ago, I wrote:
Prediction: The Ashley Madison data dump will feature the names of prominently hypocritical conservatives -- at first. In this way, the true political motive of this operation will be obscured.
And now, this. (The story originally broke on Breitbart, but I won't link to that site.)
Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden says the profile that uses his email address on the hacked “cheating” website Ashley Madison does not belong to him.

“I am certain that the account in question is not mine,” Hunter Biden said in a statement provided to ABC News. “This account was clearly set up by someone else without my knowledge.

News of the account registered to an email address belonging to Biden was first reported Monday by Breitbart News and comes as the vice president is weighing a 2016 White House bid.
Before you scoff at Hunter's words, read this. Such things are quite possible.

Ah, but the tale gets stranger still: It seems that the folks at Ahsley Madison hacked into a competitor's site back in 2012, and may even have manipulated the data.
At the time, nerve.com was experimenting with its own adult dating section, and Bhatia said he’d uncovered a way to download and manipulate the nerve.com user database.

“They did a very lousy job building their platform. I got their entire user base,” Bhatia told Biderman via email, including in the message a link to a Github archive with a sample of the database. “Also, I can turn any non paying user into a paying user, vice versa, compose messages between users, check unread stats, etc.”
If such things can be done to a competitor, such things could have been done to Ashley Madison itself.

Now, I know that feminists of the most fanatical type will dismiss the possibility that I'm raising here. Their logic is unassailable: All men are lying evil penismonsters. Hunter Biden is a man. Therefore, Hunter Biden is a lying evil penismonster. That presumption is what makes an op like this one so effective.

By the way, did you know about this?
Islamic preacher Hamza Andreas Tzortzis has been allegedly "named" on the leaked list of members of the adult website Ashley Madison. However, the well-known preacher has denied that the account belonged to him.

Tzortzis has also denied signing up for an account on Ashely Madison, the infidelity dating website -- which was recently attacked by hackers who leaked the names of hundreds of thousands of its members -- and said that it was a conspiracy by hackers to defame him.

Tzortzis, a member of the Islamic Education and Research Academy, is known for his radical Islamic views.

In a Facebook post, Tzortzis wrote: "It has come to my attention that my details are on the Ashley Madison data leak. This includes my name, address, and bank card details."

"This is an obvious case of fraud. My email address (this website doesn't verify emails, and all the relevant emails went to junk) can be found online and so can my address, as it is linked to my business account, which is registered online."
I am by no means a fan of this Tzortzis fellow, who appears to be just another fundamentalist creepazoid. At the same time, the guy makes a fair point: A frame job would be pretty easy to engineer. True, acquisition of the man's "bank card details" would require a greater-than-average expertise in skullduggery, but such things are possible. As you know, other major hacks have scooped up a great deal of banking information.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

So Hunter is the first Democrat exposed, and the assumption is that it's a double crossed application?

Stephen Morgan said...

Hunter Biden isn't the first Democrat exposed. Barack Obama was already exposed. IN fact, several accounts were registered to his e-mail address and various of his addresses. Of course, e-mail addresses aren't verified, so I suppose it's an outside possibility that one or more of those accounts weren't really him. But then, that's exactly the situation with this Biden chap.

It's possible to steal bank details, but those are a far more reliable was to tell if an account is legit. I mean, I'd notice if my account was being regularly debited for someone else to have an affair. So Tzoltzis is probably just a pervert.

GregoryP said...

I just can't put any stock in stolen data. I don't see how anyone does no matter whose information pops out. The only way I know if it is true or not is if a nitwit creep (Duggar) comes out and apologizes for his actions. Otherwise, I have to believe that information acquired through criminal activity is just fraudulent information. And who in their right mind is stupid enough to give out their information to a web site like that?

Gareth said...

In the wake of the 2014 Ukrainian coup, Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of Burisma Holdings, that country's largest private gas producer --thanks Dad-- and as such he can get all the call girls he wants, probably for free. He has absolutely no need for Ashley Madison.

Bob Harrison said...

What Mr. Morgan said.

prowlerzee said...

There is a far more detailed account of the hypocrite creep Tzoltzis elsewhere. I managed to glean a bit from it tho I had to force myself thru it as I give zero fucks about this site or its hacking. He used his card in various countries and the time actually coincides with when he was there.

Yep and as Stephen said, it was used regularly.

Anonymous said...

Why are you folks spelling his name wrong? I have no opinion on this particular story (as yet), but doesn't it make sense to spell the name right? It lends a certain credibility to ones' opinion, if one plans to be so outspoken about it.

Good writing lately, Mr. Cannon, and lots of it. m

prowlerzee said...

m, why are you using "anonymous" when that can easily be set as "m?" If you are a long-time reader here, you know that's been pointed out many a time.

As far as spelling the pig's name wrong, I'm just copying others because I give zero-fucks...including whether others are spelling his uninteresting forced-on-us misogynistic wannabe celebrity name correctly. Mr. Barf would suit his ass just as well.

But as to your other point, yes, Mr. Cannon has an exhausting amount of interesting writing, most of which is a challenge to keep up with.

Anonymous said...

prowlerzee,I meant no harm. I didn't even say I was a regular reader. I won't put the 'm' again, if I ever post. Which I won't! I seriously thought maybe posters were changing the spelling purposely so the post couldn't be googled or something; shows what I know (nothing). Nobody really needs to hear anything from me. I've been reading comment sections all day, it's psyche-crushing. I really shouldn't do it. I especially shouldn't comment!

Joseph Cannon said...

Anon, or M, I should have popped in earlier. Please feel free to comment here or elsewhere again.

Actually, I encourage people to sign their comments in any way they see fit. You don't have to sign in to anything.

The "signature" policy has a fairly simple rationale. As you know, sites that have a "free for all" commenting policy tend to attract submissions that are bizarre, foolish, hate-filled, thoughtless and insipid. YouTube comments are notorious in this regard. It is also the case, sadly, that anonymous "drive by" comments are left by paid trolls with an agenda.

Bloggers have found that the quality improves when contributors are asked to attach a signature to their words. On other blogs, you would have to sign in using your Google account or Facebook or some other service. Personally, I'm not a big fan of social media. So my own policy is simply to ask people to attack a signature of any kind, the same way they would sign a personal letter sent by snail mail.

We have a contributor here who often writes as "b." As it happens, I know who he really is, but even if I didn't, "b" would be fine. You can be "m."

And I hope you hold no rancor toward prowlerzee. She is a fine lady whom I would trust with me life.

Joseph Cannon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joseph Cannon said...

Anon, or M, I should have popped in earlier. Please feel free to comment here or elsewhere again.

Actually, I encourage people to sign their comments in any way they see fit. You don't have to sign IN to Google or to any other service. Just a name or nick beneath your words will do.

My signature policy has a fairly simple rationale. As you probably know, sites that have a "free for all" commenting policy tend to attract submissions that are bizarre, foolish, hate-filled, thoughtless and insipid. YouTube comments are notorious in this regard. It is also the case, sadly, that anonymous drive-by comments are left by paid trolls with an agenda.

Bloggers have found that the quality improves when contributors are asked to attach a signature to their words. On other blogs, you would have to sign in using your Google account or Facebook or some other service. Personally, I'm not a big fan of social media. So my own policy is simply to ask people to attach a signature of any kind, the same way they would sign a personal letter sent by snail mail.

We have a contributor here who often writes as "b." As it happens, I know who he really is, but even if I didn't, "b" would be fine. You can be "m."

And I hope you hold no rancor toward prowlerzee. She is a fine lady whom I would trust with my life.

Anonymous said...

thanks for this and other posts joseph.. james...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the note, Joseph.I'm not a fan of dumping my google sign-in anywhere, I hate that stuff.

I hold no rancor for anyone here, especially prowlerzee! m