Coleman: A ‘chilling, scary … attack on this campaign’
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 7:08 pm
- 4 Comments
“Chilling,” “frightening,” “scary.” That’s how former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman described an apparent breach of confidential donor data at his campaign Web site. It’s “obviously an attack on this campaign,” he said.
Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak expressed confidence that state and federal law enforcement agencies “will get to the bottom of this.” But Knaak conceded that “we are deeply concerned about what this means to our relations with our supporters.”
Coleman and Knaak made the comments to reporters outside the Minnesota Senate election contest trial in St. Paul, which is nearing its end after nearly two months.
“We became aware of the fact that someone had tried to access the server” more than a month ago, Knaak said. But after what he termed a “very thorough” forensic investigation, the campaign decided “there had not been a compromise of the data at that time.”
The campaign learned of the breach from donors on Tuesday night. “Obviously we are going to have to review … the process,” Knaak said, adding, “The system is secure.”
Video of the full statements to reporters by Coleman and Knaak is available at the UpTake.
Marty Owings of KFAI-FM contributed to this report.
4 Comments
Comment posted March 11, 2009 @ 8:04 pm
Does Norm Coleman realize how silly he looks outside Minnesota? I don’t follow too closely day to day affairs, but data bases are prime for breaches all the time. Your State needs a Senator. Hope it happens soon.
Comment posted March 12, 2009 @ 12:17 am
Coleman’s web site was by NO means and in NO fashion “hacked”.
If you leave your wallet in the middle of the road, in front of your house, and someone takes it, steals the money, maxes out the credit cards, and sells the empty wallet on eBay, EVEN THEN you don’t get to call the crime “Breaking and Entering”.
Likewise if someone takes publicly available data from a web site and then does unscrupulous or even illegal things with that data, EVEN THEN you don’t get to call the crime “hacking the site.”
If that were “hacking,” then those of you reading this comment right now would be “hacking” the Minnesota Independent web site. Why? Because you are viewing data that they have made publicly available (articles, images, links, comments, etc.).
Just like Coleman’s site foolishly and possibly illegally did with their donor data.
Pingback posted March 12, 2009 @ 9:04 am
[...] cyber-follies While Norm Coleman is calling it “chilling” and “scary,” a closer look shows that the disclosure of names and credit card information of Coleman campaign [...]
Comment posted March 12, 2009 @ 10:41 am
For a fuller look at the situation, check the wikileaks page: http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_Big_Bad_Database_of_Senator_Norm_Coleman
Coleman’s campaign shot themselves in the foot and continue to pull the trigger while blaming “hackers”, democrats, and the usual “liberal” suspects.
And this ninnyhammer actually expects to return to DC?
God help the Republic if he does.
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