Valuable Republican Donor Database Breached -- By Other Republicans (politico.com) 73
Politico reports:
Staffers for Senate Republicans' campaign arm seized information on more than 200,000 donors from the House GOP campaign committee over several months this year by breaking into its computer system, three sources with knowledge of the breach told Politico... Multiple NRSC staffers, who previously worked for the NRCC, used old database login information to gain access to House Republicans' donor lists this year. The donor list that was breached is among the NRCC's most valuable assets, containing not only basic contact information like email addresses and phone numbers but personal information that could be used to entice donors to fork over cash -- information on top issues and key states of interest to different people, the names of family members, and summaries of past donation history... Donor lists like these are of such value to party committees that they can use them as collateral to obtain loans worth millions of dollars when they need cash just before major elections...
"The individuals on these lists are guaranteed money," said a Republican fundraiser. "They will give. These are not your regular D.C. PAC list"... The list has helped the NRCC raise over $77 million this year to defend the House in 2018... Though the House and Senate campaign arms share the similar goal of electing Republican candidates and often coordinate strategy in certain states, they operate on distinct tracks and compete for money from small and large donors.
Long-time Slashdot reader SethJohnson says the data breach "is the result of poor deprovisioning policies within the House Republican Campaign Committee -- allowing staff logins to persist after a person has left the organization."
NRCC officials who learned of the breach "are really pissed," one source told the site.
"The individuals on these lists are guaranteed money," said a Republican fundraiser. "They will give. These are not your regular D.C. PAC list"... The list has helped the NRCC raise over $77 million this year to defend the House in 2018... Though the House and Senate campaign arms share the similar goal of electing Republican candidates and often coordinate strategy in certain states, they operate on distinct tracks and compete for money from small and large donors.
Long-time Slashdot reader SethJohnson says the data breach "is the result of poor deprovisioning policies within the House Republican Campaign Committee -- allowing staff logins to persist after a person has left the organization."
NRCC officials who learned of the breach "are really pissed," one source told the site.
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Koch
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Very few people, I think, have the sense that taking "proprietary information" is stealing; this is particularly the case for information that you yourself had a hand in creating.
As an information technology, it is a point of professionalism to recognize the proprietary nature of data you have worked on, but I wouldn't expect most people to grasp this automatically unless they'd signed an NDA. In fact when it comes to list of clients, which in politics a donor amounts to, knowledge of that list and relatio
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Even when they did sign an NDA, most people just consider it "a bunch of words the lawyers wanted."
Re:No honor among thieves (Score:4, Interesting)
"... In fact when it comes to list of clients, which in politics a donor amounts to, ..."
Boy, are you naive. Donors are the Product. Key Politicians are the Clients. Whale lists like these go way back to the Reagan Governorship Era, and Consultants Spencer-Roberts, who first gained notoriety with their smear campaign against Goldwater... on behalf of Rockefeller. That was the end of the 11th Commandment: "Thou shalt speak no ill of a fellow Republican." Republicans now hate each other almost as much as they hate Democrats.
Whale Lists were invented by Spencer-Roberts. They racked up huge leasing time on the then-innovative IBM 360, creating databases on Republican constituencies, and key voting points. Racism plays well in the South, (See the Southern Strategy.), whereas the West leaned more Libertarian on such issues as Drilling and Gun Control. And all the while, they were compiling lists of those who, if primed properly, would gush Money.
They lost on occasion; they made the switch to Ford too late in 1976. But by the 1980 Election, they were firmly in the Reagan camp again, and created that memorable phrase for him... wait, you don't remember it? America was just coming off the massive Inflation of the War Years, and Ford's "Whip Inflation Now!" hadn't worked, either as a Economic Plan or as a Campaign Slogan. It was felt that Reagan shouldn't get too specific on Policy issues, but he needed a good Slogan to kick things off. First was to shift the Inflation mess on Carter. And that is what Carter is remembered for now: Carter=Inflation. The best that could be said about Carter at the time was that he didn't make Inflation much worse. But for the 1980 Republican Primaries, Spencer-Roberts coined a Slogan for Reagan so utterly without meaning that it has gone into History... and so has been pretty much forgotten.
Ronald Reagan, 1980: "...it's time to make America great again." Old tricks are the best tricks.
The issue isn't thievery; the issue is Integrity. That the Republicans have lost any sense of Integrity, even among themselves, is only evidenced by the thievery. Goldwater may have been one mean old SOB, but he did have Principles of a sort.
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Thanks for the history lesson (sources would be nice)
Re:Senate Republicans Aren't Republicans (Score:4, Insightful)
But at least they got the Estate Tax repealed and increased taxes on those lazy post-grad students.
America was made great on the backs of people like Paris Hilton and Donald Trump Jr.
Re:Those bastards (Score:5, Informative)
No, they doubled the standard deduction and eliminated all personal deductions. A family with two adults and two children will have a smaller standard deduction ($24K) than they have now. And if they have more kids they lose big time.
Or if you're over 65 and get two deductions per person and the standard deduction now, even a couple loses.
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No, they doubled the standard deduction and eliminated all personal deductions. A family with two adults and two children will have a smaller standard deduction ($24K) than they have now. And if they have more kids they lose big time.
Or if you're over 65 and get two deductions per person and the standard deduction now, even a couple loses.
It hardly seems fair to argue the details of the tax bill when the legislators themselves don't fully understand what they voted for.
Re: Those bastards (Score:2, Insightful)
Alleged tax cuts for plebes are temporary. Republicans don't cut government spending, they just shift the burden from rich people and taxes to poor people and "usage fees". Although this bill actually increases taxes on people making 75-250k.
Also, property tax deductions are capped and temporary.
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Paris would have been a much better President.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
"Ratify Kyoto today!"
"You can get married if you're straight or if you're gay."
"If you're gonna put lipstick on a pig make sure that shiz matches her skin tone"
"A proponent of clean energy"
"Waterboarding is torture and global warming is totally not hot."
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"But at least they got the Estate Tax repealed and increased taxes on those lazy post-grad students."
Civics fail. This still needs to pass the house.
Try again when you actually know how our system works and the bill has made it through all the way to being signed into law..
Re:Senate Republicans Aren't Republicans (Score:5, Informative)
There's a reason the term RiNO exists. Establishment "Republicans" are just globalists in disguise.
To enforce the pretense of ideological and intellectual conformity.
The earliest Presidential election I remember was Nixon v. Humphrey; back then there was a different term for Establishment Republicans than RINO. We called them "Republicans". People who are now non-Establishment Republicans were called "Dixiecrats".
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I say they are the same people who would have been Democrats forty years ago. Here in Massachusetts of all places they commonly fly the Confederate flag, something that would have been shocking back then in the cradle of abolitionism.
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I would argue with you and normally also try to explain why globalism is good, but today I won't...
And yet you did, albeit in a really passive-aggressive low-testosterone way.
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Establishment "Republicans" are just globalists in disguise.
In disguise? When did the Republican party start rejecting globalism? You speak like nationalism is the norm but that hasn't been true for many decades.
Re:Senate Republicans Aren't Republicans (Score:4, Insightful)
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Drink! Girls! Feck! Arse! (Score:2)
"NRCC officials who learned of the breach "are really pissed,"
And then they drowned their sorrows and got really pissed all over again.
If you're not one of the 200,000 (Score:1)
Your solicitations will read something like, "Dear Jack. You and I both realize the importance of keeping our borders secure. But if Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and George Soros have their way..."
OTOH if you are one of the 200,000, it'll be more like "Dear Jack: Congratulations on [Jack's daughter] Sheri placing second in the state tennis tournament! ..."
Goes without saying... (Score:2)
There is no honor among thieves...on any side of the aisle!
Test of the law (Score:2)
Sounds a lot like someone may have "knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access" per 18 U.S. Code 1030. The literal text of this statute and its successors (parts of the Patriot Act, as well as the CFAA) wouldn't seem to apply to non-governmental systems; however, in practice, pretty much any computer system (including phones) is now covered by it, due to the interstate nature of the internet.
What's good for the goose...right? Maybe they'll be dumb enough to persec--
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Sounds a lot like someone may have "knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access" per 18 U.S. Code 1030. The literal text of this statute and its successors (parts of the Patriot Act, as well as the CFAA) wouldn't seem to apply to non-governmental systems; however, in practice, pretty much any computer system (including phones) is now covered by it, due to the interstate nature of the internet.
What's good for the goose...right? Maybe they'll be dumb enough to persec--i mean, prosecute them under the CFAA!
They should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, including those that knowingly used the information. The only reason they probably won't be was that it was a republican. Were it a democrat they would have fired up the outrage machine and turned it up to the max.
Is it really a breach if they had valid logins? (Score:2, Informative)
I mean, their logins weren't deprovisioned. So they just kept logging in. How is that a "data breach"? I mean I get the legal definition, but this is a cockup, rather than hacking or something.
That's not why they impeached Clinton (Score:1, Insightful)
I know this goes over the heads of idiots who are totally ignorant of history but here's the micro-summary:
1. A core principle of Western Civilization since the signing of The Magna Carta is that the ruler is no longer above the laws he administers. Trash that idea, and you live under a tyrant who can make-up the laws and enforce them arbitrarily on a whim and human progress of centuries is erased.
2. Bill Clinton signed a law into effect that said any American male accused of sexual harrasment could be drag