Tag: identity theft

So. Massive #obamacare security risks. Which were kept hidden. …Charming.

Heck of a thing when you want a drink before noon:

Henry Chao, HealthCare.gov’s chief project manager at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), gave nine hours of closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee in advance of this week’s hearing. In excerpts CBS News has obtained, Chao was asked about a memo that outlined important security risks discovered in the insurance system.

Chao said he was unaware of a Sept. 3 government memo written by another senior official at CMS. It found two high-risk issues, which are redacted for security reasons. The memo said “the threat and risk potential (to the system) is limitless.” The memo shows CMS gave deadlines of mid-2014 and early 2015 to address them.

But Chao testified he’d been told the opposite.

Continue reading So. Massive #obamacare security risks. Which were kept hidden. …Charming.

What are the depths of Peter Gleick’s depravity in the Heartland global warming smear attack? [UPDATED]

[UPDATE: The preliminary steps of removing Peter Gleick from positions of authority and respect have begun: he’s ‘resigned’ from his position with the National Center for Science Education, and his scientific ethics task force chairmanship(!) for the American Geophysical Union.  One wonders whether groups like the MacArthur Fellows Program and NAS will insist that Gleick cut all ties from them, as well.  Nobody’s really expecting the Pacific Institute to join in, of course: it’s a well-known reliable quote machine for the American Left.]

OK, quick background: last week there was a bit of fuss when a variety of documents appeared that purported to show that there was some sort of nefarious global warming ‘denialist’ (that’s what a Lefty calls somebody who has noticed that, hey, the temperature’s not actually rising the way that people told us it would) conspiracy centered around the Heartland Institute.  The Heartland Institute was not amused by this, and has been making it clear that at least one document was a pathetic forgery.  This latter point has generally been conceded by all the players, if tacitly, and the great walkback is beginning.  I recommend Watts Up With That for those looking to monitor further developments: that site has been all over this story.

But let’s go back to what got revealed, for a moment.  The documents can be grouped into two categories: a variety of materials that global warming advocate (and lecturer on ethics*) Peter Gleick admitted stealing from Heartland**; and the aforementioned pathetically faked document.  Since we now know that not even Gleick is standing by the provenance of said document, let us ignore it completely.  What it says is irrelevant.  It has no bearing.  I did not even read it before my summary below of the documents that Gleick stole, solely to keep it from contaminating my assessment. Continue reading What are the depths of Peter Gleick’s depravity in the Heartland global warming smear attack? [UPDATED]

#Weinergate update: Coed being scrubbed from Google.

OK, I admit it: when I heard this morning that Rep. Weiner had supposedly sent a coed a picture of his (encased) genitalia via Twitter, I assumed that somebody was just having his or her little joke by hacking into the man’s account and indicating that Weiner is, as I put it, one of the bigger d*cks in Congress.  But that was before Ace of Spades demolished this argument utterly (H/T: Neil Stevens) (remember, folks [and bad Moe!]: identity theft is a crime), so now I am taking this seriously as a possible scandal, and I found something interesting going on.  Somebody’s scrubbing the recipient’s Internet presence, even as we speak.

Continue reading #Weinergate update: Coed being scrubbed from Google.

Enabling identity theft, the Organizing for America way!

Executive summary: the Democrats are handing out people’s phone numbers to anybody who feels like phone banking for them.  Specifically, they’re handing out people’s full names, city and state, gender, age, political affiliation, and phone number.  Presumably, these would be people who contributed to either OfA or the Democrats generally – which means that these are people with credit cards.  In other words, this is identity-theft softcore pr0n.

Safeguards?  Ha!

This is NOT standard practice for political parties.  When a party has a volunteer work their phone bank, they typically have the phone bank worker sign documentation (paper or digitally), usually stating that they won’t misuse the information to which they are being granted access.  The phone bank typically controls access either with a password account if the system is online, or by physically limiting access to where they have the phone bank if it’s an office style set-up.  You don’t just let any person wander in off the street, rifle through your voter files and make calls on your behalf.

But that’s just what the DNC and OfA are doing here.

True, it’s a cherished tradition in American cultural life that actions should have consequences, but throwing 25 bucks to a plausible-sounding flim-flam man in 2008 probably shouldn’t put you at risk at having your identity stolen in 2010.  Or even having your name and relevant info put in a robocall spammer database.  Although the Democrats clearly disagree; and I bet that nobody involved with this program is in the database…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: If you’re a Democrat who doesn’t see why this is a big deal, then you need to stop and think.  Seriously. This is one time where thinking like a paranoid and a conspiracy theorist would actually be helpful for a change…

Chamber of Commerce sues ‘Yes Men’ for commercial identity theft.

Frankly, there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to give this ‘activist’ group any more free publicity for their movie than they’ve already gotten:

The U.S. Chamber filed a lawsuit yesterday against activists who last week staged a fake news conference announcing that the business trade group had changed its policy on climate legislation.

The suit filed in federal district court cites trademark and copyright infringement and said that the Yes Men group staged the press conference stunt for financial gain.

“The defendants are not merry pranksters tweaking the establishment,” Steven Law, the chamber’s chief legal officer and general counsel, said in a statement. “Instead, they deliberately broke the law in order to further commercial interest in their books, movies, and other merchandise.” The movie “The Yes Men Fix the World” opened Friday.

…but if you’re going to rip off an organization by using their logos and name for publicity purposes without paying for the privilege, well, it’s hard to do that without at least a little bit of publicity. The Chamber of Congress’ own post on the subject is here; they’re taking this lawsuit seriously – and given the current political climate, possibly so should the defendants.  I can think of about forty or so ruling-party Congressmen who would just love to do the Chamber of Commerce a favor right now.

Moe Lane

PS: The Electronic Frontier Foundation, of course, thinks that this is a First Amendment issue.  They don’t mention the film at all, because, well… it’s much more convenient for the EFF if everybody keeps thinking of this as a First Amendment issue, and not as commercial identity theft.  I have a lot of sympathy for the EFF’s goals, but these guys that they’re defending shouldn’t have appropriated the CoC’s name and public identity to generate buzz for their film.

Crossposted to RedState.