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Topic: Security

35,000 Ron Paul supporters demonstrate trust

Summary: There is nothing as fly-by-night as a political campaign. By this time next year the RonPaul2008 campaign will be history.

Richard Stiennon

By Richard Stiennon for Threat Chaos |

There is nothing as fly-by-night as a political campaign. By this time next year the RonPaul2008 campaign will be history. Yet yesterday, in a bizarre commemoration of the terrorist Guy Fawkes, Ron Paul's campaign raised over $3.8 million in contributions through this online form.

I am sure most commentary this morning will be on the overwhelming support Ron Paul is garnering on the Internet. But I could not help being a little paranoid when I visited the donation site yesterday. The Ron Paul campaign has an admirable privacy policy and they even took the extraordinary measure of contracting with HackerSafe to scan their website daily for vulnerabilities. Even the Thawte certificate would normally make me feel "these guys know what they are doing".

But how many of those 35,000 donors checked the URL carefully before providing their credit card information as well as the name of their employer? Was it a phishing site they were visiting? And what assurance do we have that the campaign does not store that information on someone's laptop that will be stolen from their car when they are partying at the next Ron Paul campaign stop?

I personally have pretty high confidence in online storefronts such as Amazon, or even iTunes. Those are businesses that are here to stay and struggle daily to be compliant with the Payment Card Industry standards. But a political campaign site? I only hope they know what they are doing. A data breach could spell disaster.

Topics: Security, Banking, Browser

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23 comments
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  • Ron Paul

    This is the biggest day in politics in US history. This is the last and final hope for America surging forward. Without Ron, this country will fizzle out and die, like the lead-poisoned maniacs that ran the Roman Empire into the ground. Except they were running Rome into the ground longer than the US has existed. This is our last hope, vote Ron Paul, 2008, the next POTUS.
    mickrussom@...
    Reply Vote

    • Right on!

      Those who want to see more of the same.. vote for any of the front runners... those who want actual change.. vote ron paul.
      Been_Done_Before
      Reply Vote

      • I agree with that

        While you "want change" you are not going to actually elect a Ron Paul. But if the Ron Pauls of the world start to get 10-12% of the vote the major candidates will start to look at the platforms of the independents and adjust their own stances to try to capture you vote. Change will happen.

        That's why I always vote my conscience, never for the lesser of two evils.
        RStiennon
        Reply Vote

    • Is that sarcasm?

      Are you mimicking a Ron Paul zealot? Or are you a Ron Paul zealot?
      RStiennon
      Reply Vote

  • RE: 35,000 Ron Paul supporters demonstrate trust

    Individual voters organize and raise a record $4 million in one day, and this is your story? Every campaign takes online donations, and there are Democrats running who have taken more online donations than Ron Paul over the course of the year. So how is this story any more valid now than it would have been yesterday about, say, Barack Obama's website?
    sreams
    Reply Vote

    • Its valid cause he broke a record...

      i think the rest was just filler.

      Yes, everyone is taking in money online and yes the front runners on the democratic side are pulling in more than Ron Paul, but with the funding he is getting now, it could push him further up near the top.
      Been_Done_Before
      Reply Vote

    • Just wait

      Wait until the phishing attacks using Ron Paul's campaign as <Subject>.
      This is a security blog. I don't write about politics accept when they encroach on my domain: security, privacy, etc.
      RStiennon
      Reply Vote

    • RE: 35,000 Ron Paul supporters demonstrate trust

      There's probably a few reasons, different ones for different guys. If you are less blessed in the breast area, I can tell you for SURE that a large portion of guys will pay more attention to larger-boobed girls because it's built in to our genetic make up. It's a sign of fertility.
      <a href="http://www.guaranteedrankings.com/">SEO Services</a>
      lavonic
      Reply Vote

  • Generation I for Internet

    We are now in our 30s and 40s. It is time for us to use the Power of the Internet to take back our country.

    Like the printing press helped fire up the people in the years leading up to 1776 the Internet allows us to use TRUTH to make CHANGE....
    ggibson1
    Reply Vote

    • Hoo boy

      That is bubble talk. Last time I heard that was 1999.

      I would love to believe it but the more politicians get involved with the Internet the less likely the Internet will be a tool of change.
      RStiennon
      Reply Vote

  • Ron Paul

    "But I could not help being a little paranoid when I visited the donation site yesterday."

    But that's only because you logic facility is defective; the reason why 35,000 weren't phished, is because that number comes from the campaign itself. Ergo, any phishees would not be counted.

    Finally, you false prophet, I wouldn't be so confident about Paul's demise, even if it is in your interest.
    klutometis
    Reply Vote

    • settle down

      [pre]Finally, you false prophet, I wouldn't be so confident about Paul's demise, even if it is in your interest.[/pre]

      Richard's column said: "By this time next year the RonPaul2008 campaign will be history."

      That's not being confident about Paul's demise. Look at the calendar. One way or another, the campaign will be over in one year.
      weberdan@...
      Reply Vote

    • Not his demise, his campaign's demise

      Sheesh, the election is next November folks. Is it too great a leap to understand that a presidential election office would be closed after the election? Even the website will have to move to RonPaul2012.com whether he wins or loses.
      RStiennon
      Reply Vote

  • RE: 35,000 Ron Paul supporters demonstrate trust

    Some media outlets have labeled Guy Fawkes as a mercenary, and some, like you, as a terrorist.

    Disclaimer: I don't condone violence of any sort, unless absolutely necessary for immediate self-defense (pre-emptive action is wrong, in my opinion).

    Anyway, terrorism is a tactic involving violence against civilian targets. I am not sure that Parliament is a civilian target, since it is the seat of government. In our campaign agains Iraq, for example, we targetted many government buildings and officials, without even declaring war. Perhaps, by your definition, that would be terrorism. Personally, I believe the Iraq war was a very bad idea, but I'm not sure that terrorism is an appropriate label for it.

    If Guy Fawkes had been targetting churches, schools, and marketplaces, then he would most assuradly have met the criteria of a terrorist.
    richard@...
    Reply Vote

    • If Al Quiada had...

      crashed a plane into the US Capital would that have been terrorism?

      Duh.
      RStiennon
      Reply Vote

      • If Al Qaeda had (etc...)

        Yes, the fact that civilians (on the plane) were targetted would make that a terrorist act. With no civilians targetted, it would have been an act of war by an extra-national organization. (By the way, your use of the "duh" does nothing to advance your rhetoric). Collateral deaths of civilians not explicitly targetted would not meet the thresh-hold, unless you wish to define most of our wars as terrorist acts.
        richard@...
        Reply Vote

        • "terrorism", Al Qaeda

          Remember that Al Qaeda DID target the Pentagon, right? I recall one writer, Jeff Cooper, pointing out that the attack on the USS Cole was not "terrorism", but "an act of war."

          Hmm, not sure that using a plane full of civilians to attack a non-civilian target meets all the definitions of "terrorism". Callous disregard for innocent lives, certainly.

          --
          Daid
          dstrom
          Reply Vote

  • Bias much?

    I just checked the campaign websites for Hillary, Romney, and Giuliani. All of them take online donations. Where's your fearmongering about them?

    A major political campaign for the Presidency is hardly a fly-by-night operation. And in the worst case, I've got a $50 limit on fraud liability.
    dennis.peterson@...
    Reply Vote

    • Fly by night

      All political campaigns are fly-by-night. They rent office space, hire employees, recruit volunteers and then one day, poof! they close up shop a go away.
      RStiennon
      Reply Vote

  • RE: 35,000 Ron Paul supporters demonstrate trust

    Wow. This is a new level of FUD. Why would you write such hurtful words - is it because you do not believe in Ron Paul's message or because you are so truly concerned about the welfare of the internet-using public?
    anotheroneforyou
    Reply Vote
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