FBI Investigating Fake Texts Sent To GOP House Members (wsj.com) 54
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating fake text messages sent to some House Republican lawmakers from someone impersonating a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence, WSJ reported. From the report: Several House Republicans have received the texts, and at least one member has been repeatedly engaging with the imposter, who posed as Alyssa Farah, Mr. Pence's press secretary and a former House staffer, one of the people said. A person familiar with the fake texts said the messages sought the whereabouts of certain lawmakers and their availability for meetings. Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), the House Republican conference chairwoman, has been made aware of the fake texts and referred the matter to the House Sergeant at Arms office, a spokesman for Ms. Cheney said.
Paywalled (Score:2)
Wonder what else was attempted? (Score:2)
We all can... (Score:1)
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Re: Republicans (Score:5, Insightful)
No matter how good the intentions of that hypothetical party may be in the beginning, with all the power it would hold, it would soon be invaded by power hungry sociopaths.
Having more than one party mitigates that to a degree although having only two feels like a band-aid slapped on the crack in a concrete bridge pillar.
Re: Republicans (Score:5, Informative)
Besides, even if you've got a one party system, there are still going to be factions within that party, just as today's parties have their Tea Parties, Brexiteers, Hardliners, Reformists, or whatever other name they might want to go by. It might be "The Party", but it's still going to be multiple parties in practice.
No such thing as a benevolent dictator (Score:2)
Historically, the one form of government that seems to get the most good things done is "Benevolent Dictator".
"Good" is a question of perspective. There is really no such thing as a benevolent dictator. The term itself is an oxymoron. Never has been and probably never will be one. Just because a dictator gets a lot done that is good from the perspective of some does not mean it is a net benefit to all or even most.
Unless you can come up with a way to maintain a party system akin to the Roman Senate at its peak
I suspect you may be hugely overestimating the integrity of the Roman Senate due to a lack of data. We tend to have a very idealized notion of the Roman Senate being this perfectly functioning system
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Things would be better if we had 5 or 6. Then none could have a majority whereby they could force their agenda through without at least working with other groups.
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Things would be better if we had 5 or 6. Then none could have a majority whereby they could force their agenda through without at least working with other groups.
You've got what? 50 different parties in the US these days. The biggest problem is that all your small parties are in general gigantic fuckups. Here in Canada, we have say 4 main parties. Just take a look at the absolute state when a single party has had power for the last 3.3 years. Sure are plenty of PT jobs, massive losses in FT jobs. 60% of mortgage holders are 2mo away from defaulting, and 40% of mortgage holders are in automatic defaults if the prime interest rate goes up by 0.25%. Oh and while
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Things would be better if we had 5 or 6. Then none could have a majority whereby they could force their agenda through without at least working with other groups.
A 2 party system and 5-6 party system are not much different. You still have coalitions of different groups combining to get 50% of votes. It isn't like every Republican agrees with every other Republican (and the same goes for Democrats). What you do get out of a 2 party system is you see how the coalition looks before voting, as opposed to waiting until after votes are cast for the leaders to form those coalitions.
The problem as I see from today's US politics (which is also a significant reason I switched
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A 2 party system has only 1 more party which really isn't much.
Sounds familiar (Score:1)
Some things really are "totally faked and rigged". It's not just a cliche after all.
FBI is investigating? (Score:3)
I'm sure they'll do their best, in between stints driving for Uber and Lyft during the shutdown.
In the annals of stupid ideas... (Score:1)
Whomever it was that decided that hooking an essential communication system like phone or phone testing up to the internet produced one of the stupid ideas ever.
Spam texts, fake texts, SWATting, and other sorts of false and annoying tactics can only happen because the internet allows for anonymous communications to the phone system. Blocking that would block SO much of this annoying crap... but since it would cut into telecom profits, it'll never happen.
Re: In the annals of stupid ideas... (Score:1)
Watch them fix this problem, but then do nothing about robocalls to private citizens.
Re:In the annals of stupid ideas... (Score:4, Informative)
The problem isn't the integration between the system. But the fact that the Telco services are so security poor.
Sure I can fake a text, from an other person. However the Telco can find a way to bill me for that text, but they cannot confirm to the recipiant that the text came from me or not, and whom.
Fake is not a catch all word (Score:2, Insightful)
Several House Republicans have received the texts
So the texts are real then. The may be fraudulent, or misrepresentation or whatever, but they seem to definitely exist, were sent and received and all that so the texts themselves are indeed, texts.
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I read this as "faked" texts, i.e. spoofed.
If one were conspiratorially minded, they might think the best way to get congress to outlaw caller-id spoofing would be to send them spoofed texts that have might have a sinister purpose once you know that are falsified (such as asking them information like "where are you, right now?").
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I read this as "faked" texts, i.e. spoofed.
That would be more accurate but that's a different word lol
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Catch up. CallerID spoofing is ALREADY outlawed. This is why crazy ass people that think we need more gun laws are stupid. There are already laws in place that outlaw any other illegal act that thay committed with their gun. Making the law doesn’t change fucking anything. How long has pot been federally illegal? I bet there’s nowhere in the United States you could buy that shit, huh? There is very little you can do technologically because there are a few valid reasons for it. One reason is c
Re:Fake is not a catch all word (Score:4, Informative)
Poor guy... (Score:2)
...at least one member has been repeatedly engaging with the imposter, who posed as Alyssa Farah...
I hope somebody bothers to tell him that she isn't really interested in him before he tells his parents about the engagement.
Very Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
They might eventually do something about it.
Probably a Known Issue (Score:3)
Since cellular security has been a joke for a long time, maybe this will finally lead to the replacement of SS7. The carriers haven't done it themselves, in spite of the known problems. So the question is: Will there finally be outside pressure?
Upgrades cost money, so we're still running a protocol designed in the 80s. A protocol which has been demonstrably broken for over a decade.
The fact that this happened isn't surprising in the least. The fact that we haven't taken steps to prevent it... well, that's just embarrassing.
Huh???? (Score:2)