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Hacker demands $1 million in bitcoins (Holds Romney's tax returns as hostage)

I find it interesting that they have given such a detailed description of how they purportedly got this information.

On the one hand, it gives some credibility to the story since PW could presumably easily prove or disprove it. On the other, it seems stupidly reckless to have disclosed this description, since, if true, it would make it infinitely easier to catch the culprits before the expiration of the deadline.

It also seems catastrophically stupid to have sent these USB drives to so many people if their real objective is getting paid - the Romney camp would have to be insane to believe that they won't release the returns whether they get the ransom or not. Doing this also provides yet more physical evidence which the FBI/Secret Service/etc. can use to track them down.

On balance I don't believe this intrusion and theft ever occurred.
 
Does it really matter? Would it change anything even if it was posted to the public?

When his campaign manager basically admits that they don't care about being factually accurate in their campaign, what else could possibly matter coming out about him?

Politics are fucking awful, no need to cross-post garbage from the looneybin forum.
 
Not sure the hackers thought this through assuming they do have the returns.

Paying the 1m shows weakness(not a trait you want from a president when they have to deal with bigger problems like terrorist negotiations), it also implies he has something to hide. So why would he pay up?
 
darkxshade said:
Not sure the hackers thought this through assuming they do have the returns.

Paying the 1m shows weakness(not a trait you want from a president when they have to deal with bigger problems like terrorist negotiations), it also implies he has something to hide. So why would he pay up?
Click to expand...

If (and it's an impossibly big "if"), Romney's campaign could be assured that a) these people actually have his returns; b) these people can be trusted not to release them if paid; and c) it would never become a public matter if Romney's campaign, or he personally, paid to get them back, I think it's fairly likely he would pay $1M to get them. It's clear that the returns contain something he believes would be seriously damaging to his election chances or he would have released them long ago, and $1M is small potatoes to him. Since my b and c terms are essentially impossible, I doubt very much he will ever pay one dime for the returns.
 
So .... walking into a building and making hard copies of paper documents and then walking out of the building with those papers is now "hacking"?

I see.

WTF is a bitcoin?
 
Don Vito Corleone said:
c) it would never become a public matter if Romney's campaign, or he personally, paid to get them back
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I don't see how it wouldn't be a public matter if he personally paid to get them back. What will people think when he's willing to pay 1m to hide tax returns from the public when presidents before him had disclosed them for free? What does it say about his character? If he becomes president, could he be relied upon to make the hard decisions or will he just pay up to get rid of problems?
 
darkxshade said:
I don't see how it wouldn't be a public matter if he personally paid to get them back. What will people think when he's willing to pay 1m to hide tax returns from the public when presidents before him had disclosed them for free? What does it say about his character? If he becomes president, could he be relied upon to make the hard decisions or will he just pay up to get rid of problems?
Click to expand...

I totally agree, as I said in the very post you are quoting. This is why he will never actually pay for this. Actually even if the returns ARE released, this blackmail creates a way for Romney to put a sympathetic spin on the release.
 
What if the "hacker" doesn't have anything at all, and at some point will make the claim that Romney paid the ransom. Now all the news outlets will report that Romney paid the ransom, which Romney won't be able to disprove unless he releases the returns to discredit the theory that he paid a ransom.
 
bignateyk said:
What if the "hacker" doesn't have anything at all, and at some point will make the claim that Romney paid the ransom. Now all the news outlets will report that Romney paid the ransom, which Romney won't be able to disprove unless he releases the returns to discredit the theory that he paid a ransom.
Click to expand...

If I claimed to have just received a million dollars, don't you think ATOT would ask for SOME kind of proof? I assume any reasonable media outlet would say something like "pics or GTFO"
 
Train said:
If I claimed to have just received a million dollars, don't you think ATOT would ask for SOME kind of proof? I assume any reasonable media outlet would say something like "pics or GTFO"
Click to expand...

I doubt it. They'd just say something like "hacker claims ransom paid", which would start a media shitstorm for the Romney campaign.
 
Raduque said:
This.

😕
Click to expand...

Look it up. It's complicated, but the gist is it's a cryptographic, anonymous currency. I'm a fan, but so far, I've just been watching. I*'m still not sure what to make of it, or how it fits in my life, but I like the idea.
 
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