
Hacker holds alleged Romney tax returns ransom for $1M in Bitcoins - zacharycohn
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/05/romney-tax-returns-hacked/
======
rauljara
>The person also set up a bit of a race for Romney: first to pay the sum will
receive the goods.

If the person sent the letter to multiple offices (presumably some democrats)
they are guaranteeing that the story gets out. If the story gets out, they are
all but guaranteeing that Romney will not pay the blackmail money. He has the
ability to claim the documents are faked if he does not pay, but he would
basically be admitting guilt if he does.

If the blackmailer is looking for money, they chose about the worst way to go
about doing it. If however, they want to call attention to Romney's taxes,
they chose a great way of doing it.

However, if their goal is to draw attention to the taxes, it would probably be
better to just release the documents out right. While I could see going
through the blackmail rouse to draw even further attention, it risks cementing
in people's minds that the blackmailer is a criminal and not a reliable source
of information.

If you're goal is to damage Romney, not releasing the documents immediately
only really makes sense if you don't have them. So, while the schadenfreude in
me wishes this were true, I seriously doubt it.

~~~
nikcub
crazy political hacker. demands bitcoins for anonymity

sends USB keys in the mail

that part lead me to believe he/she is probably clueless

~~~
jentulman
Would you expand on that a little?

[edited for tone/less brevity]

~~~
lifeguard
You can walk up to any mailman/mailwoman in the USA and hand them a stamped,
addressed letter and they will throw it in their mailbag and then at the end
of their shift they will dump all the outgoing mail into a sorting machine.

There are un-surveiled postal drops all over the USA.

Remember the anthrax letters? Case was never solved.

~~~
phaus
You are technically correct about the anthrax case, but that's because the guy
who most likely did it killed himself.

I know that the original suspect was the wrong guy, and that the government
basically tried to ruin the guy's life anyways, but the second suspect (the
dead one) seemed to be the real deal.

This doesn't really detract from your statement about the post office though,
I believe they found the anthrax guy because they can trace the source of the
anthrax.

EDIT: It's been a while since I looked into this case, but apparently in the
last few years a lot of the evidence has been called into question by external
scientific organizations.

~~~
lifeguard
I _stridently_ reject any "lone gunmen who commit suicide before
interrogation" explanations.

(edit for adverbs)

~~~
neilk
You probably didn't mean to use 'strident' there. From Webster's dictionary
1913:

Stri'dent (?), a. [L. stridens, -entis, p.pr. of stridere to make a grating or
creaking noise.] Characterized by harshness; grating; shrill.

------
shrikant
This appears to be an elaborate troll.

A commenter on the Reddit discussion of this news item is shedding further
details here:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ze9zn/hackers_say_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ze9zn/hackers_say_they_nabbed_romneys_tax_records_plan/c63wiz9)

~~~
ralfd
I also find this comment noteworthy:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ze9zn/hackers_say_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ze9zn/hackers_say_they_nabbed_romneys_tax_records_plan/c63vgud)

    
    
      Fake...
      Unless an employee did it...
      because
      PWC uses Locklizard electronic document security..
      a password is needed to sign on
      a password is required to open the document
      a password is needed to print a document
      no copying or extracting of the file is permitted
      document control stops the file from being open after hours     (middle of the night...lol)
      and the files are encrypted and requires a 48 bit key on   the persons pc and server to match...
      So if someone steals the file its useless...

~~~
lifeguard
>> PWC uses Locklizard electronic document security

Wow, a lot of assumptions here: was it implemented properly, was the master
password stored on file server, was file server configure correctly, is data
transferred securely before it is encrypted, etc tec

~~~
NeutronBoy
And the assumption that the PwC US uses Locklizard, and not a PwC firm in any
other countries.

You know, considering they're separate partnerships and all.

------
knowaveragejoe
PwC has already made a statement to the effect that no such incursion has been
detected and no documents were compromised. The whole thing seems like a setup
to get a bidding war going(though they're hardly making any bitcoins, yet).

[http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-
whispers/2012/09...](http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-
whispers/2012/09/05/pricewaterhousecoopers-denies-hackers-have-mitt-romney-
tax-returns)

~~~
cbs
_PwC has already made a statement to the effect that no such incursion has
been detected and no documents were compromised._

In a story that smells like a big pile of bullshit, the one easily-believable
piece- No, the one downright-expected part is that a private company was
unaware of a data breach.

------
ck2
NOT a hoax, GOP confirmed they received a copy:

[http://google.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fnashvillecit...](http://google.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fnashvillecitypaper.com%2Fcontent%2Fcity-
news%2Fwilliamson-gop-confirms-receipt-alleged-stolen-romney-tax-files)

Of course that data could be fake. But something in meatspace is happening.

~~~
eli
Right, because if you wanted to send a message to the Romney campaign, you
would do it through a regional GOP office in TN...

------
phaus
I don't understand why someone would think that this would work. The person
who hacked into Palin's personal email account didn't even find anything
interesting and he was sentenced to a year in prison (some of it was served in
a halfway house). A person who attempts to blackmail a politician for $1
million is probably going to prison for a couple of decades.

------
munro
It's probably the person that recently stole the $250k worth of bitcoins. Just
hype up your commodity with a PR stunt before you unload it. It worked well
for Facebook!

~~~
wavesounds
Agreed. I think the real goal is getting a mention of bitcoin on major news
outlets then hope increased interest means increased demand and prices. Seems
like it might be working already:
[http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg5ztgMzm1g10zm2g25...](http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg5ztgMzm1g10zm2g25zv)

------
rhizome
Is anybody credible running this story yet?

~~~
teuobk
Slightly more information at The Atlantic Wire, but they seem to be
approaching the story cautiously:

[http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/09/someones-
cla...](http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/09/someones-claiming-be-
holding-romneys-tax-returns-ransom/56533/)

~~~
rhizome
Save their reticence, that site is all about subjective gossipy stuff. It
looks like they have aspirations, but I wouldn't call them credible. If enough
other people ran the story they would too.

------
Wingman4l7
The source article that VentureBeat used, which has more detail:
[http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/secret-
servi...](http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/secret-service-
takes-alleged-stolen-romney-tax-records-sent-williamson-political-g)

The ransom note: <http://pastebin.com/1j1yzQ9S>

------
Gustomaximus
One option I have not seen put forward is the possibility of someone in the
Romney camp doing this. If Romney really has something to hide this could be
political back up in case the tax forms go public.

Two big benefits; 1)it is now harder for the democrats to release them if they
have copies on ice 2) If released the Romney camp can then say some democrat
bought them from a 'terrorist' (or suitable term) and muddy the waters by
flinging accusation backs.

I really don't think this is likely, but it is possible.

------
ixacto
Neither Romney or Obama care about civil rights. It is a one party system. The
only thing that Obama has done that is any good is the Affordable Care Act, we
still have a military empire running most of the fucking world. Why are there
bases in Germany/Italy/Japan/central Asia/...? We have more social [race
relations/healthcare/education] problems here in America than Western Europe
does, yet we are fighting wars halfway across the planet.

Neither Obama nor Romney will change that.

------
ericz
Well, this is one way to make bitcoins look seedy and give a negative
impression to politicians and the mainstream.

But on the other hand, kind of bad ass.

~~~
MartinCron
In what way is ransoming private sensitive financial information on the
Internet "bad ass"? Would it be bad ass if it were a candidate that you liked?
You? Your family?

I'm no Romney supporter, but this is the ugliest kind of politics.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
Wait... I thought as a Presidential candidate he would be handing that over
anyway. Is that optional? I'm confused.

~~~
MartinCron
There's no legal requirement for any candidate of office to disclose any tax
returns. It has become a standard thing to do, and Romney has released at
least one (2010) and has pledged to release another (2011), but it is totally
optional.

Obama, on the other hand, has released tax returns going back to 2000.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
Got it. I guess since they've all done it I assumed that was just what they
did. I personally don't really give a crap about their tax returns. I fail to
see what it matters how much money they made last year or 10yrs ago. Is that
some sort of measure of how good of a President they will be?

~~~
MartinCron
People make the argument that it's a measure of character, but I don't buy it.

I kind of like that it has provided a concrete example of how different people
pay vastly different effective tax rates, but that could have been done in a
bunch of different ways.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
A measure of character? Jeez... I hope we don't have too many people measuring
a person's character based on the thickness of their wallet.

~~~
MartinCron
I think it is more about the aggressiveness if their loophole exploitation
than mere thickness.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
Just like I encourage my tax man to find every possible way for me to reduce
my tax burden, I would expect everyone to do that. A loophole is a legal way
to do that. If a person has the know-how to aggressively find and use the
resources available to them... that shows a great deal of character to me.
Don't hate the player... hate the game. You have a problem with a loophole,
lobby to get it closed. Or use it also. But I imagine this view is not shared
by everyone.

------
salimmadjd
Everyone should read this for some interesting comparisons,

[http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2010/09/is-trickster-
rove-b...](http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2010/09/is-trickster-rove-bugging-
his-own.html)

~~~
csense
Blogspam. The linked article isn't even comprehensible. I really wish I had
enough karma to downvote.

~~~
salimmadjd
For people who didn't know the background story on Rove, is probably
incomprehensible. I wish I could find a better synthesis, other option is to
link to the entire documentary.

------
jmsduran
This situation appears to be no more than an attempt to scam money off
frenzied people. But it does sound like an entertaining book/movie plot.

------
barmstrong
While pitching Coinbase to investors today, I got asked several times about
early use cases. Opportunity?

FYI, users are not anonymous on Coinbase.

------
motoford
If this were legit, why would they ask for Bitcoins when those are so easy to
steal anyway ?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4479370>

~~~
drivebyacct2
What? You can't just steal Bitcoins out of someone's wallet. That's like
saying, people get robbed, thus cash is unsafe.

The examples like you posted, are people who stored bitcoins in wallets on
servers unencrypted. It would be like giving you my wallet and then you
getting robbed.

------
goggles99
I have always thought that not releasing the returns was part of Rommney's
strategy. The Dems will put so much effort into slamming Mitt for this that it
serves as a distraction. In the 11th hour he will release them and there will
be nothing much there to criticize. This will not only have distracted the
Dems, it will make them look like bafoons.

~~~
cpeterso
Good point. Like Obama's birth certificate and college transcripts, the more
"birthers" talk about them, the crazier they sound.

~~~
r00fus
Except that every single other presidential candidate has released several
years of tax returns and no other president has ever has his birth certificate
put in question.

But yeah, other than that minor point, the situation is exactly equivalent.

~~~
lifeguard
r00fus, you are a rose among thorns!

------
goggles99
_> Today, a hacker allegedly stole Mitt Romney’s tax returns, is demanding $1
million in Bitcoins for silence, and sent a USB drive and letter to the GOP
and Democratic party offices in Williamson County, Tennessee as proof._

The hacker stole the information today and was able to physically deliver a
letter and usb drive to two government offices? I wonder how he did this
without being caught on video? There are cameras everywhere around these
offices. He could not have used the postal service as it would have taken more
than a day. Courier services would have witnesses.

Strange that he would not just email the information to a contact email in
each of the offices.

This whole thing is nothing but a Con (a pretty good one too).

~~~
zacharycohn
You're not groking the grammar correctly. "Today" references the breaking of
the story, not necessarily that the entire series of events all happened
today.

~~~
rhizome
It's a bad sentence regardless.

~~~
jjets718
The lack of parallelism with the writer's verb tenses is pretty embarrassing.

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jfornear
Romney war room's reaction:
<http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/9405/b6e532a7a0ba.jpg>

