Earlier quoted context omitted.
Someone was sending "binary" (10101) amounts of bitcoins to the address, to spell out an imgur link as a joke.
What's the link?
This is what I got:
imgur.com/5k37g
Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records
91–100 of 116 posts
Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records
#92Can this be considered terrorism? Surely, blackmail, but also terrorism? Just curious. edit: Since I received record fast downvotes, I'll clarify that this is not meant to be a political comment, jesus.
Not really, per Bruce Hoffman (a Georgetown University professor that's an authority on the subject)
"Terrorism is ... violence - or, equally important, the threat of violence - used and directed in pursuit of, or in service of, a political aim."[1]
Certainly this is political, but I think it's a stretch to call releasing stolen tax returns violence.
[1] Hoffman, Bruce. _Inside Terrorism_. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Print.
Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, the transactions to and from these accounts are available here: Stop release: https://blockchain.info/address/1HeF89wMjC48bWNgWvVo7Wu3RaLW... Full release: https://blockchain.info/address/12AP6iCwRNFQqKLStH3A4b4hw3SL...
Those amounts that look like 8 bits of binary are interesting, but don't seem to convert to meaningful ascii. That would have been fun.
It actually is ASCII data (byte == binary_btc_amount * 256), spelling the string 'http://i.imgur.com/5k6Rf.png.
This PNG image is a QR code, which decodes to the string '01101000011101000111010001110000001110100010111100101111011010010010111001101001 01101101011001110111010101110010001011100110001101101111011011010010111101101001' (newline added for layout, not actually present).
This, in turn, is a binary ASCII encoding of the string 'http://i.imgur.com/i. But that's a 404 page, so this whole thing seems a bit futile.
FWIW, the PNG file coincides exactly with the one generated by http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ for the binary string.
Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records
#94KARL ROVE ALERT! This is a very similar in spirit to past tactics alleged against Karl Rove. This enables Romney to dodge the Tax issue by having it release this way and have all the focus pointed toward an "anonymous" group. Don't fall for this!
I wonder why this one was down voted?
Think about the timing, releasing this during DNC.
Think about the nature of the alleged hack, so unprecedented. Think about the random process, this has never happened before.
All these combined and hearing alleged doggy practice of Karl rove in the past can leade you to conclude the shady motivations behind this
Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Equally relevant!
Point taken, but I'd be happy if candidates just released both sorts of information and weren't so afraid of being transparent.
Is it normal to release educational transcripts? I thought taxes were pretty much a given, but not so with college transcripts.
Also the OPs assertion of paying 1 million dollars to hide Obama's transcripts is so ridiculous on its face I'm surprised people willingly post things like that online.
Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those amounts that look like 8 bits of binary are interesting, but don't seem to convert to meaningful ascii. That would have been fun.
It actually is ASCII data (byte == binary_btc_amount * 256), spelling the string ' http://i.imgur.com/5k6Rf.png . This PNG image is a QR code, which decodes to the string '01101000011101000111010001110000001110100010111100101111011010010010111001101001 01101101011001110111010101110010001011100110001101101111011011010010111101101001' (newline added for layout, not actually present). This, in turn, is a binary ASCII en…
And the second Bitcoin account contains the ASCII string 'prove it', in forward chronological order. The imgur string was in backward order.
Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records
#97Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, I'm not sure. It's pretty clear what's in Romney's returns at this point (a lower than average income tax rate, though it's hard to say whether it's closer to 5% or 15%), so I don't see a huge downside risk for him in them being released. If they upped their demands to, say $10 million, we're talking about real money, even for Mitt. Enough to get an extra percent of the vote or so in a moderate sized state. Unles…
A quick point and a theory: First, it's not true that the average American pays 15% in income taxes. An typical family in the middle of the income spectrum pays about 5.6%.[1] As far as Romney's returns go, I have a hunch that the political problems wouldn't be in the numbers, but in something like his charitable giving, of which there's an awful lot. What if one of the church programs he gave to turns out to have ha…
I have seen it suggested that the problem is not in the taxes themselves -- it may be in the state he declared as his primary residence.
If he declared residence in one state but voted in Federal elections in a different state, he may have committed voting fraud.
Ah -- found a source for speculation: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/17/mitt-rom...
Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records
#99The ransom note has pretty specific language: "Romney's 1040 tax returns were taken from the PWC office 8/25/2012 by gaining access to the third floor via a gentleman working on the 3rd floor of the building. Once on the 3rd floor, the team moved down the stairs to the 2nd floor and setup shop in an empty office room. During the night, suite 260 was entered, and all available 1040 tax forms for Romney were copied." A…
> Anyone at PwC will instantly know if this is true or not. My guess is that the specifics will check out (why else include them?) and give credibility to the claim.
These specifics are either public information or not. If they are public information, they can be checked by a member of the public and confirmed to be wrong or right; but if they are public information, they could have been obtained by such security breaches or by accessing the same public information used to check them. So if they are public information, they do not prove anything.
If they are private information, then perhaps only PwC/PwC-employees can verify; presumably some of them will. But, if there was no security breach then PwC will deny that there was a security breach, and if there was a security breach, PwC will - like most companies - deny that there was a security breach because there is no possible advantage for them to confirm it. So regardless of whether this private information is accurate, the only party in a position to verify the information is also in a position with powerful incentives to claim that it is false.
What is necessary is some sort of trap-door or one-way data: information which is private, but can still somehow be publicly checkable. None of these details seem to be such trap-doors.
I figure these details are either public (building plan listing the existence of suite 260; location of PWC offices and having 3 floors all are trivial bits of info) or are made up for the purpose of seeming plausible.
Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Equally relevant!
Point taken, but I'd be happy if candidates just released both sorts of information and weren't so afraid of being transparent.
In the law of evidence, there is the idea of balancing the relevance of evidence versus it's unfair prejudicial quality. How relevant are Obama's transcripts from college? Meanwhile, given that the media is composed of the stupidet people graduating college each year, can you imagine the shit storm of unfair prejudice that would result if Obama had taken courses in say critical race theory or African studies? Meanwhile, would any prejudice to the Romney campaign from the information in his tax records be "unfair" prejudice? Or legitimate prejudice?