22 Responses

1. 

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   Dredd said on 5/24/2008 @ 6:44am PT: [Permalink]

   John,

   This is the second time I have tried to post this. I think a keystroke reader and broadcaster is being sent out. The post vanished the first time. This is a remake.

   After isolating bradblog as a CPU hog, and suspecting a trojan-horse, I took a look at the bradblog page source code. I found an interesting piece of code:

   [!-- added by JavaScript Pull-Quotes plugin - http://www.striderweb.com/nerdaphernalia/features/ wp-javascript-pull-quotes/ --] [link rel="stylesheet" href="https://bradblog.com/wp-content/plugins/ jspullquotes/jspullquotes-core.css" type="text/css" ] [link rel="stylesheet" href="https://bradblog.com/wp-content/plugins/ jspullquotes/jspullquotes.css" type="text/css"][script type="text/javascript" src="https://bradblog.com/wp-content/plugins/ jspullquotes/jspullquotes.js"][script] [script type="text/javascript"] var arrOptions = new Array "true", "right", "", "true", "", "blockquote", "pullquote", "pullquote pqAlt"); pullquoteopts(arrOptions); [/script] [!-- end pull-quote additions --]

   (NOTE: the ” characters have been replaced with ‘[‘ and ‘]’ respectively). The “striderweb” caught my eye because Strider is an infamous cracker (now GOP chair in San Diego), so I gave it a surf.

   He claims to be “Stephen Rider from Chicago”. Yet his Amazon profile lists him as “strider72” and his links page goes to a “Brad’s Home Page” (“Brad Miller”) which links back to strider72‘s site under the link Strider.

   He says he goes to Gencom, which is for gamers. Strider was a famous gamer. He has a GOP political take on the NAZI appeasment story, exactly the same as the GOP talking points.

   He may just be a Strider wannabe, but what is code associated with strider72 doing in bradblog pages?

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   Dredd said on 5/24/2008 @ 7:13am PT: [Permalink]

   I note that “Stephen Rider” a.k.a. strider72 has quite an interest in the WordPress blog software.

   Bradblog is a WordPress driven blog I believe.

   Anyway check out some “Stephen Rider” a.k.a. strider72 questions, he really wants to know how blog software works under the hood (Link to WP-HACKERS).

   (my post #1 says it is being “moderated”).

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   Dredd said on 5/24/2008 @ 7:26am PT: [Permalink]

   Strider72 seems to have a handle on WordPress:

   I was easily able to hack the plugin to also add the fields to Pages.

   (Link). Maybe he works for bradblog?

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   Dredd said on 5/24/2008 @ 7:59am PT: [Permalink]

   I think Brad uses the software the guy makes and distributes here, but what is in that code? Why do my keystokes become captured at times?

   If I were wanting to watch bradbloggers I would go to that guy and pay him on the hush to put some extra code in the next version that can “do stuff” for me (And not tell anyone).

   One guy he thanks is from Strider homeland Sweden too (456 Berea), the other viper007bond is a wordpress expert.

   They could hijack a blog without raising a sweat if they wanted to.

   Just sayin …

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   Dredd said on 5/24/2008 @ 9:01am PT: [Permalink]

   Why are Strider and Aaron important to voting machine issues? Other than being a famous crackers or “hackers”?

   Aaron of Firelight, is a famous cracker too (he was a “Modem Trader” and “Swapper”).

   He is now evidently the President of the Federal Bar (Lawyers not booze) in Washington DC. He would be rubbing elbows with judges, lawyers, and lawmakers working on eVote machine issues.

   He lists his email as kraric@krvaric.com but the site has been scrubbed and blocked:

   We’re sorry, access to http://krvaric.com/* has been blocked by the site owner via robots.txt.

   Read more about robots.txt

   Try another request or click here to search for all pages on krvaric.com/

   See the FAQs for more info and help, or contact us.

   (Now one Strider and/or strider72 has links to bradblog via software modules Brad is using or via modules placed there without bradblog knowledge).

   Even if it isn’t ironic, it is a giggler.

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   nope said on 5/24/2008 @ 10:08am PT: [Permalink]

   http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9951458-7.html

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   Brad Friedman said on 5/24/2008 @ 2:49pm PT: [Permalink]

   Dredd sedd:

   This is the second time I have tried to post this. I think a keystroke reader and broadcaster is being sent out. The post vanished the first time. This is a remake.

   The code you quoted is from the Pull-Quote WordPress addon that I use (which I added myself years ago, after looking at dozens of similar plugins). It pulls out various quote from the text for highlighting, as seen in this recent item:
   https://bradblog.com/?p=6003

   The “strider” you refer to is, obviously, a guy who programs WordPress add-ons, so yes, he has an interest in WordPress software.

   There is, of course, no “keystroke reader and broadcaster” that I know of. Though the “Comment Preview” add-on does repeat your keystrokes below your comment as your typing them.

   As to your post “vanishing”, there are certain anti-spam routines built in, or added onto the WordPress software which put comment posts into the Moderation queue if they are suspected of being possible spam. In this case, your original post likely got tagged because it had so many URL’s in it (common to actual robo-spam comments).

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   Dredd said on 5/24/2008 @ 3:14pm PT: [Permalink]

   Brad,

   I can’t help notice the difference no difference between your response and the response of election officials and evote machine company officials when they are queried about a strange event in an election.

   “It can’t happen here …” … At least admit it is either ironic or funny, like Butch Custody and the Hoppy Kid 😉 …

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   Brad Friedman said on 5/24/2008 @ 6:32pm PT: [Permalink]

   Who said “it can’t happen here”?

   I answered your concerns about a “Strider72” who (apparently) wrote one of the plug ins that I chose to use at this sight. About your concerns that your post got auto-moderated. And that there was some “keystroke reader” (true, sort of, in that keystrokes are posted into the “Comment Preview” below the comment field when you’re typing to help you see what the post will look like).

   As far as “broadcaster” or “sent out”, I know nothing about any such thing, and can’t imagine what would be the point of it, since Comments are posted here for everyone to see.

   So, anyway, sorry, but don’t know what you’re talking about.

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    Agent 99 said on 5/24/2008 @ 7:45pm PT: [Permalink]

    Dredd: Under 19 minutes you could really use.

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    socrates said on 5/24/2008 @ 8:24pm PT: [Permalink]

    There’s a lot of garbage on the internet. My theory is the disinfo is a scripted dialectic. Crazy believers go at it with closed-minded debunkers. Then the know-it-alls show up with the facade of a resolution.

    A peace activist friend of mine took the time to research and write up a nice report on military testing, space weapons, weather modification, etc.. This hack named Don Harkins of The Idaho Observer butchered her paper. He changed words. He scrubbed. He did all he could to make a level-headed report look like tinfoil.

    It turns out he has ties to the master of wingnutia, Willis Carto. The disinfo wants to turn what masses of us nobodies have witnessed on the internet into folklore or enigmas.

    The Strider thing seems like a coincidence, imho.

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    Dredd said on 5/25/2008 @ 5:32am PT: [Permalink]

    Brad,

    When confronted with the potential they have been cracked or could be, the election officials and eVote machine companies you incessantly criticize always come up with some excuse or they poo poo it.

    Exactly what you have done. Then those folk are rightly criticized for their statements about having faith. “Just trust us, it is a crime to hack so it doesn’t happen”.

    The blog constantly tells them that such an attitude makes them doubly subject to cracker manipulation at election time.

    “What is good for the goose is good for the gander.”

    The proper response was “we’ll all pull together and check this out right away, because IT COULD happen here too.” Here are copies of the code, lets get down to business.

    “We are the only ones who can’t be cracked” is the motto of the B.O.W.E.L. movement uber alles! The antics of Saint sweetTurd and the Fragrant Piles should be the sole realm of the neoCons.

    Know what I am talking about?

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    Dredd said on 5/25/2008 @ 5:35am PT: [Permalink]

    Socrates,

    “it seems like a coincidence”

    What a motto for ES&S!!!

    I think I am going to be ashamed of some folk on a blog for some reason but I hope not.

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    Dredd said on 5/25/2008 @ 5:45am PT: [Permalink]

    Since cracking is a sensitive subject for some evoting machine blogs (kos? DU? B.O.W.E.L.? etc?), I won’t bring it up so as not to offend anyone’s faith.

    But, I have a story by a republican about a republican chairman suppressing the voting mechanism of the election process for candidates:

    While [mysto chairman] would not allow James Hartline to be interviewed along with the other candidates for public office because Hartline had a [conviction] nearly 20 years ago, [mysto chairman] has, perhaps, the most sinister and immoral past of anyone leading a Republican Party organization in America. What Republican voters are about to learn regarding the man who denied justice to James Hartline in his effort to become a San Diego City Councilman is one of the great tales of political corruption in American history.

    (Hartline Report, emphasis added). Read the article to find out what cracker is corrupting the political mechanism even as we speak.

    I know, “it seems like a coincidence” … [sigh]

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    Dredd said on 5/25/2008 @ 6:40am PT: [Permalink]

    The copycat phenomenon applies to the cracking world. Why would someone who calls themselves a “hacker” and belongs to “wp-hackers” and uses the name strider and strider72 not be considered to be infected with the copycat meme?

    Check this out:

    In a recent study at Colby College, in Waterville, Me., for instance, researchers asked test subjects to sit side by side in rocking chairs. The weighting of the chairs had been manipulated so that they would naturally rock at different rates. But without being conscious of it, test subjects still made the extra effort needed to rock together.
    This tendency to synchronize movements, and even moods, is everywhere in our lives. One person at the table reaches for his drink and a moment later everyone else also takes a sip.

    (NYT, The Copycat In All of US). It is not only serial killers and bombers that are copycats, crackers and “hackers” thrive on the copycat infection.

    So do the “it is just a coincidence”, “have faith”, and “trust us” folk. Especially when there is evidence.

    Just read a hundred or so “have faith in evoting machines” articles on bradblog that point it out!

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    czaragorn said on 5/25/2008 @ 9:02am PT: [Permalink]

    Hmmm – and to think a man named Strider was the president of Colby College back in the 60s and 70s. Just a coincidence, I’m sure…

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    socrates said on 5/25/2008 @ 9:12am PT: [Permalink]

    The copycat theory makes sense. Maybe the coincidence is that his name in real life is close to strider.

    You are onto something with the Krvaric family. I looked into that a bit when it first came out. It’s not just about Tony. A bunch of that family is full of “connected” people.

    I can vouch for Brad on the moderator queue thing. It happened to me a week ago, when I had too many links in a post.

    I came up with incredible coincidences too and have gotten mostly crickets chirping. Here is one. Fintan Dunne calls Bev Harris a 9/11 CIA rat. He infers that Brad is CIA because he thinks he emerged out of nowhere based on the Curtis dog story.

    AnonymousArmy posted the same exact thing at DailyKos. Imho, Brad is at a disadvantage to us anonymous bloggers. He can’t afford to speculate and appear as a “conspiracy nutter.” And yes, we do come up with some incredible stuff as amateur sleuths. But unfortunately the major forums are controlled. Then we end up at good places like this, where it just isn’t set up for long, investigatory threads.

    I’m personally used to forum formats. So I’ll post something to the best of my ability, and then after the fact, if need be, I’ll make corrections.

    But anyway, Steven Hertzberg was a prolific poster with Fintan Dunne and was even on his radio show a few times. Steven is also the brother of rich man Robert Hertzberg who once ran for Mayor of Los Angeles. I found one bit of legislation that R. Hertzberg sponsored right after the 2000 chad stuff. He was looking for funding for voting technology.

    I also agree with you that feel good stories about “victories” with evoting are misplaced. The phrase limited hangout comes to mind.

    I don’t trust Verified Voting Foundation one bit. I also think people are incredibly naive if they think Rob Pelletier was just an abberation. We’re being gamed. I feel your pain.

    I tried to find dirt on Brad. There was none. Plus, he shouldn’t be blamed if others go yahoo on limited hangout successes.

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    Dredd said on 5/25/2008 @ 10:10am PT: [Permalink]

    Socrates #17

    “You are on to something with the Krvaric family”

    I have been reading the DC Federal Bar Newsletter and it is interesting.

    One Sheara Krvaric, who attends the meetings along with Silvio, is another DC lawyer. Deals with “no child left behind” and is in a big firm.

    I cast no aspersions on Brad, nor can I understand why one would go there, but if he is going to hang with me, he must understand that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Otherwise he will appear as a hypocrite. My counsel is for his long term good.

    Bradblog is the best. This is why they have strider, the Karl Rove of crackers, on our case.

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    Dredd said on 5/25/2008 @ 10:20am PT: [Permalink]

    Czarazorn #16

    A coincidence of J.R.R. Tolkien’s having created the character in his trilogy “The Lord of The Rings”.

    It is also coincidence that opposing parties will both take to the character, and identify with it.

    Strider became king you know … if you get my drift.

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    Dredd said on 5/25/2008 @ 10:39am PT: [Permalink]

    Aaron of Fairlight, a.k.a. Silvio Krvaric, contributes to Guliani and McCain. If Strider just changes his name to Moses, they could be Moses and Aaron and lead somebody to the promise land. Eh?

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    Brad Friedman said on 5/25/2008 @ 12:16pm PT: [Permalink]

    Dredd sedd absurdly:

    I cast no aspersions on Brad, nor can I understand why one would go there, but if he is going to hang with me, he must understand that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Otherwise he will appear as a hypocrite. My counsel is for his long term good.

    Your counsel may be well-meant at heart, but it is absurd.

    Yes, there are attempts to hack/crack The BRAD BLOG every day. Yes, there has been various successes at that from time to time or the years, and each time we implement further security measures as best as possible.

    I’m sure there are folks who would be delighted to take down this blog if they could, and I’m quite sure they could, and I certainly know they try with regularity. So we maintain backups, and do everything that we can to keep things as secure as possible.

    However, the suggestion that someone is somehow “hacking” the blog by having been the author of a plug-in that *I myself chose* from amongst dozens that did a similar thing (added pull-quotes to articles when needed) but that were created by others, and the evidence that it’s rogue code is that it is created by some guy who has the word “strider” in his user name somehow (because it’s based on his real name) is just a foolish waste of my time and space on this blog and John’s blog items.

    If you have security concerns, of course, you can share them with me. You have my personal email address and have always been free to email me about any such concerns before.

    To waste folks time here with a wild goose chase, when there are rather real goose chases to be undertaken frankly, is obnoxious and stupid, in my opinion.

    That you seem to have the inability to admit when you are wrong in all sorts of assertions you make from time to time is simply exhausting and unimpressive.

    That you continue to insult the good citizen patriots who are working each day to try bring/restore sanity to our system of democracy by referring to them as the “bowel movement” is outright insulting to each and every one of them, and is severely trying my patience, Dredd.

    Please go take a break and come back when you can contribute positively, responsibly, and un-insultingly to the conversation here.

    I’m done with you on this nonsense for the time being. Please knock it off. Thanks.

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    Dredd said on 5/26/2008 @ 5:13am PT: [Permalink]

    All software used in voting machines is choosen by those making the machines and those using it.

    I will take a break and try to find a blog that is … you know …