Can you only imagine is the reporter had discovered it was a Republican candidate that was a member of an infomous hacker group in their youth? Now way in hell it have been held.
Reuters reporter Joseph Menn exclusively revealed on Friday that Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke belonged to one of the best-known groups of computer hackers as a teenager.
After more than a year of reporting, Menn persuaded O’Rourke to talk on the record. In an interview in late 2017, O’Rourke acknowledged that he was a member of the group, on the understanding that the information would not be made public until after his Senate race against Ted Cruz in November 2018.
Can’t help but wonder if the election would have been more of a blow out for Cruz had this information come to light just before the election instead of 4 mouths after the election.
Even now it doesn’t seem to be gaining any traction in the lamestream media about his hacking days. You know with the Russian hacking and all . . .
One thing you didn’t know: While a teenager, O’Rourke acknowledged in an exclusive interview, he belonged to the oldest group of computer hackers in U.S. history.
The hugely influential Cult of the Dead Cow, jokingly named after an abandoned Texas slaughterhouse, is notorious for releasing tools that allowed ordinary people to hack computers running Microsoft’s Windows. It’s also known for inventing the word “hacktivism” to describe human-rights-driven security work.
Funny the reported didn’t want the voters in the Texas election to ask the questions then.
Among the questions voters should ask, she said: “What was the violation? Was it egregious? What does it say about their character – do they believe the rules don’t apply to them?” If substantial time has passed, she added, voters should decide whether the person “learned the error of their ways and no longer engages in those kind of behavior.”
Reporter knew he was a former member. He could have blown it wide open then. But he wanted the bigger story instead of hurting the guy. You don’t see that do you?
If a republican candidate was known to be involved in a hacker group when they were a teenager, it would vastly increase the odds of me voting for them.
As for not forgetting how to do it - the way “hacking” worked in 1986 has almost no relation to how it happens today.
Wow, this is enough to tar & feather him, right? Who didn’t do stupid ass things when they were a teen/young person? I know I’ve had my share of stuff. If EVERYTHING about everyone was exposed to the media while campaigning, we wouldn’t have elected officials.
Is this based on your own experience? I can tell you, hacking in 1990’s and hacking today are completely different… Beto’s “cool factor” with younger voters just jumped 5X-10X
“Those things” were done on an Apple II, it’s hard to see the relevance to today’s internet.
It doesn’t really look like Cult of the Dead Cow was exactly the kind of hacker group we are familiar with.
CDC wasn’t of that ilk. Although some CDC essays gave programming and hacking instructions, in the late 1980s, the group was more about writing than it was about breaking into computer systems.
In high school there were a couple of hackers (the phone lines, games, you name it). They still do some hacking today, keep up on the latest. One now has a respectable job and helps the company keep hackers out. But in my experience, once they do it, they don’t stop.
