| Back in January, in what appeared to be a public relations stunt, Norm Coleman's campaign/recount team accidentally revealed their technical ineptitude and their supporter/donor database for the world to see.
In the ineptitude's case, not such a big deal. But revealing donor information? Kind of a big deal.
Now WikiLeaks.org is publishing the database, along with a suggestion to those found in it that they cancel the listed credit cards. The database does not appear to contain full credit card numbers, only the last four digits and the three-digit security code.
In two email messages, WikiLeaks says the following: Your name, address and other details appear on a membership list leaked to us from the Norm Coleman Senate campaign.
If you have contributed financially to the Coleman campaign there are additional details.
We understand that Norm Coleman became aware of the leak in January.
The information has been passed around out of public view.
We have sent you this note as a curtesy [sic] in case Norm Coleman has not contacted you previously.
We have not released the material yet, but may do so within the next few days.
In line with our policy of completely neturality for whistleblowers and political sources, the material will be treated impartially. We support all those who engage in the struggle for political reform and wish you well.
And in a follow-up:
Following our earlier email over the Coleman leak, we have discovered that all on-line Coleman contributors had their full credit card details released onto the Internet on 28 of Jan, 2009 by Coleman's staff.
Senator Coleman was made aware of this yet elected not to inform supporters in violation of Minnesota Statute 325E.61...
We provide proof of here (Windows Excel spreadsheet), which if you are a contributor will provide the last 4 digits of your Credit card and the security numbers on the back. Despite the spelling and grammatical errors, the emails appear to be legitimate.
Update: Coleman campaign response "We contacted federal authorities at that time, and they reviewed logs from the server in question as well as additional firewall logs," campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said. "They indicated that, after reviewing those logs, they did not find evidence that our database was downloaded by any unauthorized party.
"Let me be very clear: At this point, we don't know if last evening's e-mail is a political dirty trick or what the objective is of the person who sent the e-mail.
"What we do know, however, is that there is a strong likelihood that these individuals have found a way to breach private and confidential information.":
Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan is clearly confused in his response to this latest event, since the reason the database was publicly available was precisely because the campaign HAD NO FIREWALLS PROTECTING THAT DATA. |
