How to put a dampener on the Christmas spirit:
Some lame f*ckhead has hacked Anonymous Lefty (aka barrister Jeremy Sear) and deleted all his blogs. It looks like AL’s got no backups at all, so is in an even worse situation than Catallaxy was when we lost some of our archive earlier this year.
At the moment, Jeremy is blogging here, where he gives an interesting account of how this whole situation arose. It turns out he’s the victim of a cyberstalker, some sad sack who has spent quite a bit of time planning this little, ahem, coup.
As someone who’s been stalked in real life, and received a large amount of abusive correspondence (both electronically and otherwise) from lefty f*ckheads, let me echo Tim Blair’s view of this, available here:
Someone has hacked Jeremy Sear’s blogs. I was once subject to a similar, but not anywhere near so thorough, attack; as I said at the time, “If ever a right-winger tries to pull the same dumb stunt on a lefty, well, let me condemn you in advance.â€
UPDATE: People are trying to work out a way Jeremy’s blog can be hosted on a secure server somewhere. More news to follow as it comes to hand.
UPDATE II: The hacker is also in the process of pinching other identities and posting under them - it seems to be attacking blogspot at present, with a particular focus on lefties. It’s pulled the same stunt on Victorian blogger Miss Politics.
UPDATE III: Blogspot took their time, but Jeremy has his blogs back and the hacker has been booted into the ether. Good to see a bit of justice in this world. He tells the story on his (temporary) ‘Hacked Lefty’ site, linked above.
36 Comments
Some people obviously have WAAAY too much time on their hands.
Anonymous Lefty gets hacked and you out him? That’s not very nice.
Blair was not subject to a similar attack. If you want to know what really happened, read this.
Crikey outed him a fair while ago, Tim. And you shouldn’t have pulled your stunt either. It’s evidence of extremely bad manners, if nothing else. We don’t moderate much here at Catallaxy, and that’s our choice. If Tim Blair wants to moderate, then that’s his call, just as it’s yours on your blog.
That said, as Tim Blair points out, what’s been done to AL is orders of magnitude worse than what you did to Tim Blair. Whoever did it is a very sad individual who clearly doesn’t cope well with being contradicted.
You aint a cyberstalker are you Tim?
You’ve got the skills to do it no doubt.
Any funny business on my computer and I’ll be suspecting you.
The suspect list won’t be very long.
Anonymous Lefty gets hacked and you out him? That’s not very nice.
Says Lambert whose most regular form of abuse is to denounce as “cowards” anyone who posts pseudonymously (and who disagrees with him).
Tim, of course, stole Blair’s property and then folded when legal action loomed.
Now listen Tim.
‘Don’t even think about it.’ is my message to you.
Because last time when you were waving two years jail in front of me I was thinking “This is crazy-talk…. therefore it could be LEFTIST PROJECTION”
And it was just the time when I was having enourmous trouble with my computer.
So just remember now you will always be a suspect.
As one of the few people with both the inclination and the capacity to do this sort of thing.
I think that Tim Lambert has already proved successfully that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and the fact that he again raises the topic only serves to emphasise the sincerity of his admiration for Tim Blair.
I am deeply moved…
AL has this to say on his blog on the whole name issue:
Knowing what it is to put many hours into blog design and individualisation, I’m genuinely sorry this has been done to AL. Whoever did this is a cur and a lowlife and I hope Blogger responds promptly to his requests for solutions.
This is sheer vandalism. Of the same type (but much more harmful) are deliberately lit bushfires. I am still puzzled why and what sort of people do this. I can understand why people engage in armed robbery but not in random arson. Any clues?
I just showed this post and Jeremy’s post to my nephew (a quintessential tech geek), who formed the view that AL’s been followed around for two years, quite possibly by the same person.
That’s creepy.
I’d be keeping an eye on this, people. Some very malicious stuff is going on - follow the link to Miss Politics’ site above for more.
I’m smelling a rat here.
This is just implausible.
This is a leftist targeting leftists to throw aspersions on the right.
Read this extremely crude prose here. And this is a fellow who has it enough together to steal Miss Politics photo:
“Miss Politics said…
The Greens are a party of Freaks and anyone who votes for them should keep their Greens support secret. It’s an embaressment.
By the way Broadmeadows is a shithole full of poofters and fags.”
Now I ask you? Does this sound like some hateful lefty attempting to copy me or not?
Look I leave rude messages on Quiggins and others sites for sure. But thats because I know I’m blocked there. They are totally in control. And they toss it out.
Plus so far they always know who it is. There hasn’t been a time when they haven’t known who it was.
This is bullshit.
This is a leftist setup. Persecuting a couple of leftists as collateral damage in order to criticise the right.
Thats what I imagine is going on anyhow.
What right-winger would pull that stunt?
For what purpose would he be trying to influence people?
This is so implausible because he’s gone after anonymous low-traffic sites that basically scream out …….’I'M A LEFTY”
Miss Politics. Anonymous lefty. And Bolt-watch.
People get pissed with individuals. They don’t get motivated like this just on account of someones name has “Lefty” in it?
Supposing this was a strong campaign to disrupt the left?
You wouldn’t go to a low-mileage site and just wipe this one fellows records?
What could a free-enterpriser acheive by doing this?
You wait. This computer geek whoever he is will be trying to put the blame on some well-known right-winger who will protest his innocence. He’ll be trying to leave a trail around implicating the address of someone who would never do this sort of stuff.
I want to right off the bat blame *****.
I’m getting a pre-emptive shot off at ***** here.
Or some other commie with great computer skills.
Jeremy’s site’s been pretty popular for quite a while, Graeme, and his BoltWatch site was enough of an irritation for the Bolta to work out who he was and expose his identity (presumably on the grounds that it would undermine his income as a barrister).
Initially, I thought it was some random Bolt-lover/obnoxious righty, but I’ve now formed the view (as I said on Miss Politics’ site) that the individual concerned is getting a great deal of pleasure out of winding people up, and is just a hacker trying his hand at politics, rather than some politically motivated character trying his hand at hacking.
I’ll have to edit out your references to actual persons, too, Graeme - it’s potentially actionable.
Now hang on a minute?
What if it is a free-enterpriser striking a blow against the slave philosophers?
Should we not be cheering this latter-day Scarlett Pimpernell?
>>>>>>>>>
Dude.
If you are out there.
That was great work stealing Bolt-watch.
But this erasing of files is no good. And you will not even have sympathy with either side if the permanent record is lost.
On the other hand could you steal ****** and use FDR’s visage for good and not evil for the very first time in history?
Onward.
But lets have no more erasing files no matter how hateful.
Back to work fella.
Keep it up.
The concept of a Boltwatch is a pretty hateful thing skeptic.
And for a guardian of the law to be doing this sort of thing like he’s a “MADE MAN” with the mob.
I mean thats really hateful stuff because its like he’s an untouchable. Whereas Bolt is being hosed down by leftists day and night.
I mean I put nasty things about people up on my blog. But I’ll just as likely take them down again if they act a bit less hateful.
I’m trying to influence people just a tad.
But this Barrister running an entire site going after Bolt alone.
Thats pretty shabby I would think. I mean I’d start feeling bad about such a thing after awhile.
I remember when other people had a go at W-Girl I went to my own blog and wiped all the nasty stuff I had about her out.
But these people are quite happy to be witch-hunting Bolt round the clock.
Wiping files aside…….. maybe this Barrister had it coming?
He after all is part of the justice system.
He should have been setting a high standard and not acting like a bully-boy.
No-one knew he was a barrister until the Bolta ‘outed’ his identity. He was quite willing to keep his work and his blogging separate. Jeremy’s also got a history of shit like this happening to him around Christmas over the past few years, to the point where my nephew suggested that it was quite likely the same person each time, which gets closer to your suggestion about personal animus.
And in any case, the hacker is a thieving little prick. Like Steve Edwards, I view blogs as property, and Jeremy’s just had his property filched. Which I find particularly annoying as a rather property-focussed libertarian.
“This is a leftist targeting leftists to throw aspersions on the right.”
This is as plausible as Putin’s enemies killing other Putin’s enemies to embarass Putin.
These sorts of paranoid conspiracy theories do not make any sense. If lefties want to damage the right, they have plenty of methods to do it.
There are plenty of crazy leftists of course, but there are also enough crazy rightists.
“These sorts of paranoid conspiracy theories do not make any sense.”
Don’t be daft. We start from the basis that there is a conspiracy going on here.
Well at least we have one person involved in clandestine behaviour.
Thats already a given.
From there we try and figure out whats going on.
But the secretive behaviour is already going on and so the conspiracy hat ought to already be on ones head.
I don’t believe there are many crazy rightists. Whereas leftist crazies are legion.
“And in any case, the hacker is a thieving little prick. Like Steve Edwards, I view blogs as property, and Jeremy’s just had his property filched. ”
Well like I said I don’t approve of files being wiped.
But Boltwatch?
Thats basically a fascist hate-site right?
Its as much Bolts property as anyone elses I would think.
And yes the filthy bugger divorced his Barristering from his Blogging. Surely because his blogging was so hateful.
These are fascists skeptic.
Dude ought not have wiped his files.
But our sympathy should be somewhat muted.
My sympathy for Lefty has been somewhat reduced by the fact that he made a totally unsubstantiated allegation that Andrew Landeryou was behind it and when asked to withdraw the accusation, made a very un-gracious withdrawal, insulting Landeryou some more.
I’ve been reading Landeryou for almost a year now and only recently has he even made Lefty a focus of his attentions - Lefty has rated far below his radar and I would take his innocence as presumed unless proven otherwise
Yair he shouldn’t have done that, Jason. Mind you, Landeryou’s pretty big on the poo flinging. They deserve each other I suppose.
If AL hasn’t got any backups, that’s pretty irrsponsible, isn’t it? Because quite apart from the hack, he can fall victim of a simple disc failure.
Apparently his essays are backed up in html, but putting the whole site together again would take months. I’m not sure why that’s the case, and I have to admit to being careless myself before Catallaxy’s server died.
We all lost a month’s worth of stuff when our server went belly-up, and we lost several years worth of comments (including much of the famous Thread of Doom). It’s all nicely backed up now, but we can’t exactly point the finger at Jeremy on that score.
“If AL hasn’t got any backups, that’s pretty irrsponsible, isn’t it? Because quite apart from the hack, he can fall victim of a simple disc failure.”
What rubbish. Talk about blaming the victim. There are some real emotional retards on the blogosphere (which is why I only read certain blogs these days).
I’d be interested in the legal ramifications of this. That is, stealing someone else’s property on the net. It’s not Landeryou. Landeryou at least has the guts to use his own name, and he’d own his opinions about AL.
It’s raining in Brisbane. Bah.
Look, if this is true, it a bad thing and he/she ought to to prosectuted to the full extent of the law.
That said, I really do have doubts whether anyone could or would go to the trouble of removing lefty’s blog.
I don’t read it that often. But honestly what I have read isn’t really that much. He’s a crashing bore.
I actually think it is some kind of stunt. In any event how could anyone get through password protected sites without, errr, a password.
He’s just jerking everyone’s chain hoping he’ll be a bigger story than Christ on his birthday. That’s the kind of guy Lefty is, me thinks.
What makes even more suspicious is that he is trying to hit Landeryou out of thin air.
I want lefty to prove his site was messed with before I blieve him. I think he’s lying.
Well done, J C.
My least favourite part of the blogosphere is how childlessly ideological it can be. Your response suggests ideological blindness rather an understanding of technology.
I think he has provided the IP address elsewhere of this jerk. Compare it with Lefty’s, shall we?
So what Darlene. The differing IP addresses prove little other than the Lefty’s IP and the alleged hacker are different.
Personally I couldn’t give shit if lefty’s site was hacked because I simply don’t like the guy and am indifferent.
And he’s frequently accusing people of stalking him. The fact he said what he did about Landeryou makes me hope this blows up on Leftys face.
I want proof before I believe a single word he says. he lied about Landeryou so I think he would lie about the hacker.
He needs to prove it.
I’ll back up some of what JC argues. My criticisms above stand and stand firmly but let’s not pretend Lefty’s portfolio is a great loss to the world of letters. He’s just a boilerplate leftist dingbat.
I agree about the IP thing.
I am sitting in an Internet cafe with a bunch of geeky boys who are playing games at the moment.
It’s not my usual IP address.
I choose to believe that someone wouldn’t lie about such a thing. Okay!!!
You’re comment about not caring is awful, no hyperbole. It’s not just about “Leftist”. It’s about everybody who blogs.
I don’t think his blog is great, but that’s not the point.
His analysis is no better than a lot of other blogs (leftist dingbat or loopy right-wing). I wouldn’t want to see any of them violated. I just don’t bother to read them if I don’t like them.
Fair enough Darlene. I take your points.
True enough about Landeryou being a mud slinger But as Darlene points out this hacking is such a far cry from Landeryou’s modus operandi that the accusation can be presumed to have been made in bad faith - Landeryou has never shied away from his outrageous claims or disclaimed responsibility for his stunts. The man may not have many marbles but he has balls.
What CL and Jason said. Landeryou stands behind the product he sells (apologies to Chandlers). I just really, really dislike theft and this hacker is clearly getting a lot of pleasure out of pulling Jeremy’s chain.
That said, the stunt it (the hacker) pulled on Miss Politics - posting abuse under her name on a third party blog - is similar to what Munn did to JC and is pretty bloody disgusting in my book. And it’s not likely to apologise, either.
Becky has posted some must read thoughts on this episode.
“His analysis is no better than a lot of other blogs (leftist dingbat or loopy right-wing).”
Loopy right-wing blogs hey?
Can you THINK of any?
houghts on this matter are here http://boltwatch-watch.blogspot.com/2006/12/identity-theft-when-one-uses-pseudonym.html and dispite the history of conflict between jeremy and myself I condem this nastyness with out reservation.