French Arrest Hacker Who Targeted Obama Twitter Account

A 25 year old Frenchman who used the online persona HackerCroll has been arrested after hijacking US President Barack Obama's twitter account.

“This individual spread information about a dozen American personalities, notably Barack Obama, on specialist blogs,” Adeline Champagnat, head of the French office against online fraud, said.

HackerCroll appeared to be driven by the challenge and apparently acted alone in his quest to gain access to the accounts. No sensitive information was allegedly targeted.

“He thinks he is good at this, and he is,” Ms. Champagnat said.

The French were tipped off by the FBI according to this Globe and Mail article.

Obama To Keep His Blackberry

It's a huge day for President Elect Barack Obama! Not only will he take the oath of office and assume the role of President but it also looks as if he is going to be able to hang on to his Blackberry. When asked about the device during a CNN interview Obama responded "I think we're going to be able to beat this back," and "... I think we're going to be able to hang onto one of these."

The concern over the device has been in protecting Obama from threat and the security risk that may be associated with the Blackberry's GPS and e-mail encryption.

"While it is true that the Secret Service is likely more than capable of fending off these types of security breaches, it's easy to see that the organization charged with preserving the commander-in-chief's security at all costs would rather not have to deal with this exposure at all," said Carmi Levy, an analyst with AR Communications Inc. "Up until now, they've been able to disconnect the president as a means of limiting exposure, but it looks like that era is drawing - fitfully - to a close."

Source: Globe and Mail.


The good news for tech companies is that there will finally be a President in the White House who has a clue about technology.

"Occasionally. One of the things I've used on the Google is to pull up maps. It's very interesting to see -- I've forgot the name of the program -- but you get the satellite, and you can -- like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It remind me of where I wanna be sometimes." - George W. Bush

Cellular Systems To Take Hit During Inauguration

With throngs of people descending upon the US capital for a chance to see the Inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama, cellphone carriers are urging their customers to go easy on the system by delaying making calls, sending photos or text messages. “If some of these estimates come true, people should anticipate delays with regards to sending text messages or making phone calls or getting onto the Internet,” said Joe Farren, spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. “We can only bend the laws of physics so much,” Mr. Farren said. Sort of sounds like a Scotty remark to Captain Kirk!

Interestingly, Verizon has several mobile units known as COWs and COLTs (for cells on wheels and cells on light trucks) in it's inventory that it plans to deploy to alliviate some of the anticipated strain on it's system. Carriers also have “sat COLTs,” which carry satellite dishes to send signals independent of terrestrial networks and power supplies. “You drive it where it needs to go, park it, push a couple of buttons, the mast will deploy, the dish will deploy and our generator and satellite ensures we’re fully self-contained and independent,” said Tanya Lin, manager of emergency response team operations for Sprint.

Source: NYTimes

Famous Twitter-ers Have Accounts Hacked

Twitter discovered yesterday that 33 prominent users of the service had their accounts compromised by an individual "who hacked into some of the tools our support team uses to help people do things like edit the email address associated with their Twitter account when they can't remember or get stuck." Those hacked included Rick Sanchez and Barack Obama. The tools were immediately taken offline to prevent further hacking and the company says they will only go live again when the security issue has been addressed. In addition, many users were also the target of a Phishing scam on the weekend. There can be no doubt now... Twitter is a hit!

Source: Twitter Blog

Verizon Says Obama's Cellphone Account Compromised

Barak Obama's cellphone carrier, Verizon, has acknowledged that a number of unauthorized employees have accessed the president elects cellphone account. “This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed president-elect Barack Obama’s personal cellphone account," chief executive officer, Lowell McAdam said in a statement. The account was apparently a simple cellphone account and not a Blackberry data account and was also inactive for several months. The incidents come as there is much debate over whether or not the new President should be allowed to use his Blackberry device while in office.

CBC Story.

Obama To Reveal Running Mate Via Text Message

Barack Obama is said to be ready to reveal his choice for a running mate who will make a bid for Vice-President. Rather than wait for the Democratic Party convention to make the announcement, as is traditional, he will let supporters know his choice through a text message. In a move that is aimed squarely at appealing to the technologically savvy younger voters, this will be a presidential election first. "No other campaign has done this before," campaign manager David Plouffe said in the e-mail. "You can be part of this important moment." The Obama campaign has effectively used the Internet to rally an army of volunteers and raise over $340 million as of the end of June. CBC Story.

Obama Looking For A Few Good Coders

With a new slogan "Write Software, Change Washington" the Obama '08 presidential campaign is inviting software developers to put their skills to work and help:

• Create software tools which will enable an unprecedented nationwide voter contact and mobilization effort
• Help build and run the largest online, grassroots fundraising operation in the history of American politics
• Introduce cutting-edge social networking and online organizing to the democratic process by empowering everyday people to participate on My.BarackObama

What the heck, if you are a web developer with 5 years experience in a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) environment then you might have what it takes... at the very least, you could end up with a 6 month job in Boston.

Details Here.