Re: Using LexisNexis as a political weapon

["John C. A. Bambenek, GCIH, CISSP" <bambenek.infosec () gmail com>]

I live in Illinois, so take the following with a grain of salt (especially
if you know what Chicago politics means)...

Why is this surprising?

On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 6:55 AM, Richard M. Smith <rms () computerbytesman com>
wrote:

>  http://postgazette.com/pg/08202/898222-178.stm
>
>
>
> Democrats used state funds to research foes
>
> Sunday, July 20, 2008
>
> By Dennis B. Roddy and Tracie Mauriello, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
>
> HARRISBURG -- As the pivotal 2006 legislative election season began, top
> Democratic House aides, using state resources, undertook a wide-ranging
> opposition research campaign into both Democratic and Republican office
> seekers, e-mails show.
>
> The project was spearheaded by Eric Webb, director of the Democratic Office
> of Member Services, who, on Jan. 31, sent e-mails to state employees
> advising them to begin digging up information on 35 declared and potential
> candidates for the state House.
>
> "We are mainly looking for bad things: liens, bankruptcies, homicides ...
> you get the picture," Mr. Webb advised a dozen House colleagues via their
> state e-mail accounts. Employees were asked to use LexisNexis, an online
> search service that makes use of thousands of databases. The state had
> several LexisNexis accounts that a grand jury later said were used for
> opposition research.
>
> Mr. Webb told staffers to send results from the searches to Dan Wiedemer,
> executive director of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee,
> at Mr. Wiedemer's political campaign address.
>
> Many of those targeted in the project were sponsored by PACleanSweep, a
> group formed to oust lawmakers who had voted for an unpopular legislative
> pay raise.
>
> …
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
> https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
> Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.