Pat Book at CJME is breaking this story as I type. Here’s the news as we know it: mayoral candidate Liz Brass is coming forward with allegations that she has been the victim of computer hacking.
According to Brass, starting in the spring, she noticed that her e-mail, Facebook account and campaign website had been compromised by hackers. She says she believes campaign-related files were stolen from her computer.
Regina Police Service has confirmed that they have received a complaint about this and are investigating. They could not give any other details.
Brass says she believes the attacks were an effort to undermine her run for mayor. And the attacks were successful insofar as her ability to organize was hindered as she could not promote her run through the internet until she was able to secure her website, e-mail and Twitter from further attacks. She also says that the whole experience took a psychological toll on her and her family.
I’ve spoken with the RPS about this. And as I say, they have policies that prevent them from giving any more detail than “an investigation is taking place.” They won’t even confirm or deny if something criminal has actually occurred as, apparently, determining if a crime has happened is part of an investigation.
The communications people at the RPS are really nice. Really, really nice. But man, they’re infuriatingly vague.
So, normally, with a story like this, we’d be able to take a look at the evidence the complainant has brought forward and make an educated guess as to whether or not an election-related crime has actually occurred. But in this case, as hacking is involved, I can’t look into Liz Brass’ computer and examine the gewgaws and scrimshaws and say, something hinky is definitely going on here. For all I know, this is a web attack that’s completely unrelated to the election. Or maybe not. Or maybe she’s facing a really nasty Word bug. (I’ve seen those. They can be nasty. And they can appear sentient.)
More details as they emerge.
UPDATE: Have spoken with Donnelly and Fougere. Both say that they have not experienced any hacking or dirty tricks. And they would of course condemn any such activities if they’ve occurred.
UPDATE #2: Included a link to Book’s story over at CJME. Has a lot more detail.
UPDATE #3: And I’ve now spoken to Meka Okochi. He also says that he has not experienced any hacking or dirty tricks. He also condemns any such actions. Should also note that Donnelly, Fougere and Okochi say that they nor anyone involved with their campaigns have been contacted by the police.
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