Ron Paul Watch: Criminal BOTNET Fueling Ron Paul Spam?

14 Comments

• 

  dan holloway

  October 31, 2007 at 4:23 pm

  When there is proof ,,,Then run the story. Untill then you are to be considered a Neo-Con flunky

• 

  Flap

  October 31, 2007 at 4:58 pm

  Dan,

  First, read my comments policy.

  Second, click the link in the piece above and read the account.

  The evidence is there.

  • 

    N. Pannbacker

    November 1, 2007 at 11:27 am

    Actually, the evidence just shows that somebody is sending spam with Ron Paul’s name on it.

    This spam is shutting down many of Ron Paul’s Youtube and Google videos, while creating a backlash against him.

    Any supporter intelligent enough to set this up would be intelligent enough to foresee the outcome which, frankly, is quite obvious. The motivation is far stronger for somebody outside of his support sphere. The accusations of “Ron Paul’s supporters are spammers!” and the name “Paulbots” have been flying around for a long time, so the idea was already planted. The results were predictable in advance as well.

    This is more likely an attack by another campaign. Ron Paul’s campaign isn’t the only one with tech-savvy supporters and skilled computer users working for it.

• 

  Tara

  October 31, 2007 at 8:04 pm

  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.

  Source: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/more-on-ron-pau.html

  This attack method can do far more harm than good for the Ron Paul campaign so I will make a guess that this is the work of those in the NSA using cyber war tactics out of loyalty or possibly under orders to use this stealth attack method to derail the Ron Paul campaign by using the campaign’s online strength against them.

  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.

  • 

    Flap

    October 31, 2007 at 9:09 pm

    I doubt it.

    But, if you want to think it is a conspiracy so be it.

    More likely it is supporters that are exuberant or the campaign working stealthily.

    • 

      Tara

      October 31, 2007 at 10:26 pm

      Uh, why would RP supporters create spam that causes all of Paul’s YouTube videos to be removed?? Does that make any sense at all? This spam was created to hurt him, not help him.

• 

  Tara

  October 31, 2007 at 8:05 pm

  Link for the above: http://www.nolanchart.com/article259.html

• 

  Jeffrey Bubb

  October 31, 2007 at 8:07 pm

  The article you link states,

  “This is clearly a criminal act in support of a campaign, which has been committed with or without their knowledge,” says Gary Warner, the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s director of research in computer forensics.

  Committed WITH OR WITHOUT their knowledge.

  Your article here states,

  There is evidence that supporters of Representative Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign have been using “HACKED” computers called BOTNETS to enhance his internet presence.

  Evidence of supporters envolved…where does your link say that? Besides, wouldn’t it be foolish for someone — in or outside the RP campaign — to do this? Wouldn’t it just lead to negitivity toward Paul (like it already has)?

  Recent spamming of this sort has lead to RP videos being pulled from YouTube for violation reasons. Do you really think this is a wise campaign tactic?

  No, this is being done by someone not only outside the RP campaign, but outside the RP support sphere. I highly suspect, frankly, that this spamming is being conducted by forces against to Ron Paul. THAT makes the most sense.

  • 

    Flap

    October 31, 2007 at 9:13 pm

    It is common sense.

    But, if you want to believe someone is out to get Ron Paul who is at 2% in the polls then have at it.

    Maybe it is David Duke?

• 

  FZappa

  November 1, 2007 at 2:31 am

  I like that Flap — you claim Ron Paul is just a 2%-er nobody needs to worry about…and then you spend all your time lobbing goofy attacks like this at him.

  Stand aside, Flapper! The Revolution will not be stopped or televised, but it will be podcast, youtubed, and dugg.

  And don’t forget November 5th!

• 

  Miranda

  November 1, 2007 at 10:07 am

  I got to agree with FZappa, 1/2 of your recent articles are about the Paul campaign, you must be worried about him for some reason…

• 

  Wiseburn

  November 1, 2007 at 11:35 am

  Flap,

  I’ve seen speculation http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/016548.html this is a ploy by anti Paul forces to have the phrase “Ron Paul” added to ISP Spam Filters.

  Paul’s volunteer campaign runs on email. This could be an effective method to reduce it’s effectiveness. I think most ISPs already block most email from botnets and I think the amount of
  unsolicited Paul email is quite low compared that already captured by ISP bayesian filters.

  At this point we don’t know whether Pro-Paul or anti-Paul forces are behind this limited outbreak.

  Thanks,
  Steve

• 

  FZappa

  November 1, 2007 at 4:34 pm

  But, if you want to think it is a conspiracy so be it.

  Dude, you’re one to talk. You’re claiming our entire movement is a conspiracy.

• 

  Flap

  November 1, 2007 at 5:10 pm

  Dude, you are a joke posing as a dead rock star who once crapped on stage.

  The Ron Paul Revolution = fringe, weird, strange and NUTTY.

  And gonna LOSE……..