Republican Congressional aide in hot water for hiring hackers

[CornField]

This is a couple of days old, but I ran across it on /. and just about peed my pants laughing. You've got to see this...

Here's the original news article:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/9999

The communications director for Montana's lone congressman solicited the services of two men he falsely believed to be criminally minded hackers-for-hire -- with the expressed goal of jacking up his college GPA -- during an exchange that spanned 22 e-mails over two weeks this past summer.

Todd Shriber, 28-year-old press aide to U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., e-mailed the security Web site attrition.org on Aug. 9, writing: "I need to urgently make contact with a hacker that would be interested in doing a one-time job for me. The pay would be good. I'm not sure what exactly the job would entail with respect to computer jargon, but I can go into rough detail upon making contact with a candidate."

After initially denying knowledge of the exchange, Shriber told me this afternoon in the final of our three phone conversations: "I did something that's greatly out of character for me and it's a mistake that I regret."

Two members of attrition.org, "Lyger" and "Jericho" (a.k.a. "security curmudgeon") corresponded with Shriber and fooled him into believing that they would carry out his wishes, with Jericho warning him at one point: "You are soliciting me to break the law and hack into a computer across state lines. That is a federal offense and multiple felonies."

And here's an update on Shriber's firing:
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061222/NEWS01/61222004

U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg’s communications director, Todd Shriber, was fired Thursday after verifying the accuracy of online reports that he tried to hire hackers to change his grade point average in the records of his alma mater, Texas Christian University, according to Rehberg chief of staff Erik Iverson.

“Todd’s a good person who made a real big mistake and he’s going to have to pay the price,” Iverson said. Iverson said he told Rehberg immediately, and that Rehberg agreed Shriber should be fired.

And the piece de resistance, the emails between Shriber and attrition.org:
http://www.attrition.org/postal/z/033/0871.html

So, I need three things to make this happen:

1. A picture of a squirrel or pigeon on your campus. One close-up, one
with background that shows buildings, a sign, or something to indicate you
are standing on the campus.

2. The information I mentioned so I can find the records once I get into
the database.

3. Some idea of what I get for all my trouble.

...

I don't live near the college anymore, I'm 1,000 miles away. Is there
some other sign of trust I can extend to you or should I wait a few
weeks and travel to my school and get these pictures?

A picture of a squirrel or pigeon near where you live is fine. One close
up, one from the distance enough so there are buildings or anything to
help identify the location of where the pic was taken from.

(lots more)

:rofl:

[NMDemDist2]

1. ROFL

that was hilarious!!! What a little snake

:rofl:

edit to add, I sent this thread to EarlG for the Top 10 list too

[CornField]

2. Texas Christian University

I'm sure they love their name being added to the mix. :D