Brown Website Hacked?
by Bill Dusty
On Wednesday, May 28, 2008, a rather bizarre series of events unfolded as watchers of the campaign Web site of 11th Hampden District State Rep. candidate Chelan Brown began to notice, first, that much of her site contained material apparently lifted from other campaign sites from across the country. (See this post.)
Things got mysterious, then, as the domain registration administrator apparently went from one entity to the next. At first, the registered administrator was listed as Tahon Ross. Later in the day, after the controversy had erupted, the listed administrator was changed to Bill Upton. Still later in the evening of the same day, the registration information went blank entirely.
Also in the course of the day, the Web site itself went from being active to being taken offline, with a placeholder reading something like, “Coming Soon, the Campaign site of Chelan Brown.” This was at about the time the registration went from Ross to Upton.
Below are the two registrants listed during the day:
Registrant: Committee To Elect Chelan Brown 58 Larchmont Street Springfield, MA 01109 US
Domain name: ELECTCHELANBROWN.COM
Administrative Contact: Ross, Tahon tahonross72@hotmail.com
58 Larchmont Street Springfield, MA 01109
US +1.6466418625 Fax:Technical Contact: Ross, Tahon tahonross72@hotmail.com
58 Larchmont Street Springfield, MA 01109
US +1.6466418625 Fax:
Registrant:
Committee To Elect Chelan Brown
888 Johannasey Road
Springfield, MA 01109
USDomain name: ELECTCHELANBROWN.COM
Administrative Contact:
Upton, Bill icmenu2@hotmail.com
888 Johannasey Road
Springfield, MA 01109
US
+1.8762357865 Fax:Technical Contact:
Upton, Bill icmenu2@hotmail.com
888 Johannasey Road
Springfield, MA 01109
Nothing came up on a GIS search for “Johannasey” Road on the City’s website, and 58 Larchmonte came up as being owned by Myrna Wynn, from Mattapan, MA (for what that’s worth). Also, both contactees had Hotmail email addresses – certainly not odd, but something to note.
At about the time the domain registration went blank, visitors to the Web site were then greeted by this message:
Has been pulled due to unauthorized tampering
We will be back online soon!
With this news, I turned to Google’s caching system in search of an earlier, cached version of Brown’s website. That search resulted in a version of Brown’s site that did indeed differ to some degree from what we saw on Wednesday. The graphic part of the layout was generally the same, but there was some noticeable difference in the text – or at least what text could be made out on the cached version, which apparently was image-formatted. But was the difference due to tampering, or just a matter of the Web site having been updated? According to the Brown campaign, the reason is presumably the former.
Surely, if the site was in fact vandalized, then the intent was to embarrass and defame Chelan Brown. It was argued on the Forums that a hacker would have simply defaced the site, but this is not necessarily so. It does, however, still beg the question: Who would go to so much trouble to defame a novice candidate (despite her past run for mayor) who has perhaps little chance of dethroning a long-time incumbent? And wouldn’t simply uploading fake Web pages do the trick? Why go through all the trouble of (apparently) submitting bogus domain registration information? Even then, I could see maybe doing it once. But changing the registration information twice in the same day, even as visitors openly questioned the validity of the site?
Strange goings-on, indeed.
UPDATE: On Thursday, the Chelan Brown Campaign came out with charges of hacking. Read the Republican story here.
PDF
27 Responses for “Brown Website Hacked?”
Comments are closed
ADVERTISE AT THE SI
 |
 |
I also noted the cache and the odd distortion of the images. My tentative thought is that the cache portrays the site as it was being built. Wasn’t it just registered very recently? Thus the cache won’t necessarily portray how the site looked when it was “finished,” depending on how the caching process works.
The changing registration info is just bizarre.
If the site was really hacked, it was done so with grace, in an apparent attempt to make Brown look good, if also causing a possible copyright infringement. What’s not to like? The only problem is getting caught… was Brown not looking at her own site, and she needed anonymous MassLive whistleblowers to point out the matter?
Chelan Brown’s camp has insinuated through masslive posting and other avenues that the so called “hack” job was done by a member of the Swan family or someone associated with it.
I challenge her to file a report with the necessary authorities and call for a COMPLETE INVESTIGATION. Once completed, make the results of the investigation just as public as she did the allegations of tampering. I’m calling the bluff of Mrs. Brown and her campaign to PROVE the person or persons she “suspects” actually committed the crime.
To suggest that the police are “too busy” to handle the matter or that she will report it if the alleged “intruder” “does it again” is ridiculous. If someone committed a crime such as this they should be exposed and presecuted. Put up or….you know the rest.
I agree. The Brown Campaign needs to be a little more forthcoming in their handling of this matter, and until such time as evidence is produced showing the alleged “tampering,” I will remain unconvinced.
Same here. That cache pull-up by the way should have been from May 25th (I pulled up the same indicating such). That would be according to her/the Republican article, the “1st day” the site effectively went up.
“She said her initial campaign Web site was created on Sunday with only one page, and was tampered with on Wednesday.”
I mean geez, bad designing sites and mistakes happen a lot on the Web. It gets caught, fire your “webmaster” and/or fix it, admit any error and move on.
The silence from the camp only makes things a hell of a lot worse then they most likely are…and any claims of a “hack job” just hacked (pun intended) any shred of credibility she had running.
Talbert Swan’s past history puts a major dent in his credibility. Do your research!!! His father was indicted by the FBI and he was investigated by the police for filing a false police in the past.
He faxed himself and then claimed he was being harassed.
Fred
Who are the proper authorities in terms of reporting website tampering? I called the police dept. and they don’t investigate such matters. So, perhaps she would have looked like a fool if she were to go to the police dept. And who is stupid enough to lift whole passages from other sites word for word? Obviously, paraphrasing is not in their vocabulary.
Kimberly – The state Attorney General and the FBI both have departments for investigating Internet crimes.
Shawn – we are all well aware of the Swan family’s history. No need to “do research.”
None of it erases the questions raised by this incident. The simple fact of the matter is this: An investigation by law enforcement into the hacking claims would do wonders to ease the minds of very many skeptics.
Shawn,
If you’re going to present “facts” do your research. I was never “investigated” for “faxing myself and claiming I was harassed.” So allow me to give you the information that you have conveniently skewed in your feeble attempt to cast aspersions. I, unlike Mrs. Brown, filed a police report after I received a racist fax with a header from the Springfield Police Department. Mayor Albano called for an immediate investigation into the matter, which I completely supported.
The results of that investigation revealed that the fax did not come from the Police Department. The investigators never concluded where the fax came from, only that it did not come from the number that was on the fax header.
Ananymous posters such as yourself, took those results and came to the unsubstantiated conclusion that perhaps he faxed it to himself and blamed the police department. Then, as well as now, I challenged anyone, including the police department, the DA’s office, the Attorney General, etc. to prove the defamatory claims and to date, eight years after the fact, the ridiculous claim that I faxed myself is urban legend.
So if your going to accuse anyone you should at least be able to connect the dots somewhere because none of your slanderous statements about my family’s alleged “history” connects us in anyway to Mrs. Browns problems with her website.
And as far as being aware of the Swan family’s history are you all referring to:
Delois Swan, retired former Assistant Director of the State Department of Education’s Western MA regional office and longtime social activist
Freda Swan Malone, former aide to Mayor Markel and longtime social worker and supervisor at the Department of Social Services
Jonathan Swan, longtime educator and principal at Duggan Middle School
Rev. Talbert Swan, I, former NAACP President, longtime board member of Baystate Medical Center, former president of the Pastor’s Council, retired supervisor of Monsanto Chemical Company and Senior Pastor of Spring of Hope Church
Ben Swan, Sr., current state representative, long time aocial activist and civil rights leader
O’rita Swan, longtime educator, former principal of Robert M. Hughes Academy Charter School
Patrice Swan, longtime youth worker and Executive Director of the Southend Community Center
What “HISTORY” are you guys referring to? I am extremely proud of the contributions my family has made to this community for over 50 years and nothing Shawn28 or any other poster states can negate that.
Talbert Swan failed to mention his father’s federal conviction. Is he proud of the contributions that his family has made to organized crime?
He is the Senior Pastor of Spring of Hope Church, but stepped out on his marriage and fathered a child. The Swan’s treat the child like Cinderella. Thank God for probate court, for he would have ignored his financial responsibilities. Most pastors would have stepped down after such major sin, but not Talbert. His arogance never ceases to amaze me. Proud of that!!!
Shawn you obviously are one who has some personal issues with the Swan’s and choose to use this forum to spew your hate. Your allegations are outright lies and you should be ashamed of yourself for spreading them.
What does Fred Swan’s indictment have to do with Chelan’s website? Or for that matter what does it have to do with his son? What does an alleged child outside of marriage or stepping down from the church have to do with Chelan’s website. You are a coward using this venue for personal attacks and are veering far far away from the issue being discussed.
W.Dusty, you shouldn’t allow this type of personal slander to be posted on your blog.
Shawn, I have little respect for one who hides behind a screen name and slanders a preacher, a family or anyone. Why not reveal yourself and give the opportunity for your history to be scrutinized. He who is without sin, cast the first stone. You are casting quite a few my friend and it is really disgusting
As a matter of fact Shawn, who are you? Obviously you are affiliated with Chelan’s camp, which has done nothing more than throw darts without any proof. You guys held a press conference claiming that your website was hacked yet refuse to file a police report. Now to shine the light away from this campaign snafu you guys are slamming the Swans.
And Chelan had the nerve to talk about “dirty politics” during the press conference. How hypocritical are you guys?
Shawn, you are obviously Dejuan Brown or maybe Tahon Ross or even Daryl Moss, all guys who have beef with the Swan family and have a history of throwing rocks at them and then hiding your hands and claiming you had nothing to do with it. What a bunch of jokes you guys are. Chelan is really gonna get crushed in the election with such lowlife cowards advising her.
You’re probably the guy responsible for plagiarizing the website
Let’s just get real for a minute. Somebody hacks into her website after doeing extensive web searching to lift informatiion from other websites and pastes the information into Chelan’s site? They pasted her bio, her stances on campaign issues and a picture of the State of Washington in a diabolical attempt to discredit her?
PLEEEEEEAAASE!!!! Chelan or her people plagiarized the website and thought that no one would notice that the well scripted information on her site was too advanced for her limited GED intellect. When people started commenting on her blatant plagiarism they cried “tampering” to save face.
If it were really hacked they would file a report with the police and not come up with the lame excuse that the police are “too busy” to investigate the crime.
You guys are liars and an investigation would reveal it
I posted earlier that I called the police dept. and they said such an incident doesn’t fall within thier purview.
Do you really think that the FBI will take this complaint seriously? I going to make a few more phone calls.
People are using words like “spewing hate” or “slander” for a very public family. When the Kennedy’s are mentioned whether it is the good, the bad, or the ugly no one cries “hate” or “slander”. It goes along with the territory of public life. Now Talbert has a radio show and a television show, which means he will be subject to both scrutiny as well as criticism. So he has a out-of-wedlock child while he was married and someone alludes to it on a public forum, what is the big deal?
I thought that Chelan was going to carry out an internal investigation before she moved forward with a formal compalint. Isn’t that what she said in press conference?
I am not work on Chelan’s campaign! When someone lacks character, it is not lost on me what they are capable of.
Kimberly,
The State AG’s office and the FBI have Internet hacking investigation departments. If a candidate for state office has been hacked and there are allegations of plagiarism, what makes you think one of those law enforcement departments would not investigate it? What in your mind would be the threshold event (minimum crime) worthy of an investigation? If a candidate did request an investigation and the state or feds refused to pursue it, what in your mind would be their reason? Election campaign rigging and plagiarism aren’t serious enough?
Shawn get current guy, the out of wedlock kid is 15 years old
I never knew the principal of my son’s school had such a famous family….
Hold on a second. Is this the same Chelan Brown who over the years sat up in Ben’s office on State Street helping him campaign, getting mentored, and getting community support from Swan’s supporters, getting FREE exposure for her organization and face? Okay, just checking to make sure I have the right person here.
Now, as citizens of this great Commonwealth, we should demand, I say DEMAND that her charges of website tampering be investigated by the FBI and by any other legal means necessary. This is a very serious charge. Thankfully, our legal cyber sleuths are very smart. Why, they will turn her AWAKE computers and personal computers and those of her friends and supporters upside down, extract that memory and history that cannot, I say CANNOT be erased so as to remove any doubt from the minds of her detractors that she plagurized (sp?) on her own site with political material from other candidates’ web pages across the state.
Once that is accomplised, the legal cyber sleuths can then turn their attention to a full investigation of what exactly happened.
Come on Ms. Brown, the authorities would totally back your claims and open an investigation. Just know that the starting place would be in your camp, particularly your inner circle.
Ms. Brown is not the only one who can open an investigation. The candidates of the other sites can also file a claim of plagiarism against her.
Careful now.
I feel Chelan Brown’s accomplishments and her potential for greater things far outway this website issue. I know her and have worked with her and I also feel with her support of the community would be amplified as State Rep. Sorry I’m all late, I just found this forum but had to get my statement out.
care saginaw health mi covenant covenant mi saginaw care health