I was stunned when a source who works high up D side in the House told me that his e-mail address had been changed because the R controlled Techs would not put Spam software on his computer. I posted this earlier and was asked to put it up as a diary. I did some more research and here it is...
The Facts - Just the Facts
You might not be aware that most of the U.S. House of Representatives IT people are hired and supervised by R's. This is what happens when the power shift occurred in 1994 during the Gingrich revolution. Some of you probably heard stories of Republicans gleefully assigning Democrats the worst offices, broken down office equipment and a variety of other indignities as payback for many years in the forest. This also included Computer equipment.Up to 1994, it didn't make a huge difference. Most people used computers as a fancy word processor. They would type a document. Edit it. Then print it and file it the old fashioned way.
Then along comes the need to be on the Internet and the networking that followed. Gradually all of the Democrat's computers were hooked into the House network that the Republicans controlled. The Republicans gave them a false sense of security by giving them fingerprint security mechanisms. But all the computers could be turned on and serviced remotely with a Tech administrator account and a feature called Wake On Lan. Which means you can turn on a computer remotely if the computer is set up properly (BIOS setting for the geeks out there) . They call this pooling of resources. Only the lower echelon staff members have any tech computer know how. Very few of us old farts know anything about computers. That would include security, file storing or even basic navigation around the User interface. Knowledge is limited to mostly opening a computer browser, email and a word processor. I imagine not many of them are certain where they are saving their files based on people I've worked with out in the private sector. For a majority of Dems It's like a TV to them. They know how to turn it on and change the channels.
It's like that in the rest of the world because I deal with it every day. Very successful people at the peak of their careers in the 45-60 range don't have the time or inclination to learn the mechanics of networking and basic file security. Nor would we want them too. We need them working on solving the Health Care Crisis, Iraq, Deficits, Social safety net programs and the environment.
As we have seen the R's now have access to most of the House and senate computer resources ( more money,ability to hire IT staff which make them much more proficient in the use of technology to gain power than the D's) and as we have seen have no qualms about using that power.
Well it's no different in the House, although there is no proof that anything nefarious has happened in the House.The fact that a significant amount of the techs are hired and supervised by the R's COULD POTENTIALLY create an obstacle for effective opposition to the dismantling of the New Deal and eventually getting back to majority status.
They share resources like mail servers, web-servers, andamany of the R supervised the techs have unlimited access to the D's computers. This includes many of the committee and Representative offices and their staff computers.For some odd reason, they don't even have basic spam protection. Staff usually have to wade through 1000s of spams a day to get to constituent mail. The only solution a 18 year staff member was offered was to change his email address. Well it was done. All his email was kick backed to the source as Person not known. They are not allowed to install free tools that are available. Access to tech expertise is limited at best to a in-house person that just may or may not know computers. They are still not allowed to install anything on their computers. Overall- the power shift in congress means a lot more than crappy legislature getting through. It means that Ds files are no longer secure. Their communications are cut off unless they have the nerve to dive into the computers themselves. But since the R's control the mail servers, they could easily retaliate with trained high level geek experts against Dem staff who are just well informed about how a computer works.
Lets look at one incident in the Senate where at the request of Senate leadership in both parties, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle and a Secret Service team conducted a six-month-long investigation. According to a March 7 Roll Call article, the investigation found:
During an 18-month period, from late 2001 into early 2003, Frist's staffer Miranda and a junior Judiciary staffer, Jason Lundell, accessed at least 4,670 documents from a computer server that was left without safeguards. Only a few of the documents were from Republicans, and the report portrayed Miranda as the leader of the effort in which he instructed Lundell to look through the Democratic files. The Justice Department opened its own investigation more than a year ago, following a referral from Pickle and a bipartisan letter from six members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This investigation is ongoing, as Roll Call also noted.
When one of the perps(Miranda - See his new job (JHC just as I was preping this I saw Armando's Diary ) was asked by the about the legality of this, according to the Boston Herald: here was his arrogant response
There appears to have been no hacking, no stealing, and no violation of any Senate rule, Miranda said. Stealing assumes a property right and there is no property right to a government document. . . . These documents are not covered under the Senate disclosure rule because they are not official business and, to the extent they were disclosed, they were disclosed inadvertently by negligent [Democratic] staff.
Now if I have this right Lundell and Miranda were fired, but the investigation is either stalled or going nowhere, as most Republican investigations of there own seem to go no where. It would be interesting for some Kossack to see where Lundell is working now (seeing as how Miranda stepped over into the private sector without missing a beat). Why is it that Republicans who are running empty on ethics, honesty and respect for the law generally are so well rewarded in the private sector? Why did they get the Values Vote again?
Solution: To us Geeks it would seem like a simple solution to set up separate networksthat include mail servers and web servers to secure the Democrats network. Understand this: The House Dems have little or no power to correct these problems. So calling your Dem reps office other than to verify this diary would do no good. TheRepublicans have to be hassled by letters to the editor. Calling the media. Etc.
Opinions Here-
It would be easy to have all of the D's email and Instant messaging forwarded to Republicans with out the D's knowing. It would be easier for Republican hired techs to take off on a magic hard drive ride in the wee hours of the morning collecting all files pertaining to say a guy named Tom DeLay or Karl Rove. Have you ever noticed how they seem to be four or five moves ahead of us on everything. I honestly don't think it's because they are that much smarter. I think it's because they are devious. Based on all the clear violations of international law and domestic law that the R's seem to do with complete immunity and impunity, I ask myself, why wouldn't they be sucking confidential strategy files out of the D's computers. I would think it would be a no-brainer for them.
As far as the ethics or the rules? Well we've already seen how they play that game.So I perceive a serious problem theat the House D's have on their hands but it can easily be fixed from my vantage point...maybe not from theirs. Can we put enough pressure on the R's to make them change the House Rules to protect each party's data like the pressure they got on the got on the ethics committee?
Bottom line: In 1972 Nixon and his cronies ordered their minions to break into the the DNC to get any dirt he could to win an election. He eventually resigned to avoid the worst. Now the R's don't even have to use lock pickers. Just hackers and the determination to win at all costs even if it means sacrificing ethics, rules and sometimes breaking the law in the process. We've seen it happen almost every day. We have gotten numb to it. Clinton would have been impeached and convicted if he had done 1% of what these people have done.
The Big question is, what in the hell can we do about it?