Salvador Dali was asked once if it was hard to paint a picture. His reply was “No, it is either easy or it is impossible”.
Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has claimed that his Facebook and Twitter account had been hacked after an underwear picture showing the outline of his bratwurst appeared in his Twitter stream. While this is entertaining I felt it necessary to file a formal complaint (to get it on record) with the FBI and the IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) It looks like his claim was bullshit. Lee Stranahan does what he does best and “painted” the picture outlining the reasons why this claim is most likely bullshit. (Here and Here) But again there may be merit to Representative Weiner’s claim. If it is true then we have a serious problem. What information beyond Twitter and Facebook has been obtained by this hacker (or hackers)?
Since the rise of Wikileaks it seems that private information, that is not intended for public release, has seen an exponential growth in the number of incidents. I am confident that Rep. Weiner would not discuss confidential and official business on these networks but it is entire plausible that a) he may have done so with co-workers and/or b) that his private information was compromised beyond the social networks he used.
So as entertaining as this whole incident is a formal complaint still needs to be on file with the FBI. After all, if his account was compromised then how many other elected officials will also be hacked? How much information can these potential hackers obtain? Below is the record of the complaint that I filed Sunday May 29, 2011.
To read the entire text from the summary of the complaint you can view it here
And then the completion. At least now it is officially on record. Rep. Weiner may not want to go through the hassle of filing a formal complaint. And now he may not have to. Hopefully the FBI can check into this claim on their own with minimal interference to Rep. Weiner. And most likely they will be able to tell fairly quickly if his accounts were actually hacked or not. If he was hacked, the FBI should also be able to tell to just how deep the attack goes. Hopefully the hackers did not gain access to any official government communications that may be sensitive or even classified. End Note: The Daily Kos has accused Andrew Breitbart of somehow being the mastermind behind this and calling it an elaborate smear as pointed out by RB late Saturday. Considering the escalation of this incident and the allegations by Representative Weiner I found it proper to put it on the record with the FBI.
Ameristroika 