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Getting Out : Seeking Justice
The Morals of a Hacker | from Skanska - Wednesday, February 02, 2005 accessed 2174 times A new low for this group? Just these past two weeks MovingOn has had attempts at redirecting; the FGA site, exfamily.org has had its chat board scripts fail; the new encyclopedia site, xfamily.org has had a malicious script uploaded, which dumped the databases (i.e. deleted everything); the articles on Wikipedia have been either completely deleted, rewritten, or larger tracks of text have been re-worded (the IP address for this user was traced to FCF); and at least one person has had their phone records tampered with. This may all be one big coincidence. However, the probability of that is rather low. How many hackers would wish to target these avenues all within the space of a two weeks? Either of two things are happening here: (1) The group has people (either hired externally or some good geeks internally) who can and will do this. (2) The group is being framed to look like they are behind this (the FCF user was rather sloppy with hiding his or her tracks). Of course, they may be all unrelated or human error, etc. I will let you decide. If they are, indeed, attempting to sabotage these sites, how are they morally justifying all of this? Not that I need to understand their twisted morals (think "Deceivers Yet True"). However, isn't this going too far? I mean, forget about it being extremely illegal (I believe the offense can fetch you up to 20 years in prison?), wouldn't this be digging their own grave? It is interesting that the media hasn't picked up on the significance of all their legal name changes. Wouldn't anyone find it odd that ALL the top leadership of a group has legally changed their names (and multiple times for some)? What about them using fake passports (i.e. Zerby with her Australian passport)? The above may be just gossip and founded on nothing. However, I would be interested in hearing what others think about this. Have there been any other such illegal attempts? Let's get a list together, shall we? |
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Reader's comments on this article Add a new comment on this article | from Craven de Kere Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - 20:00 (Agree/Disagree?) www.Able2Know.com was also targeted with a series of DoS attacks right after the www.xfamily.org exploit. I'm not sure if they are related (a2k is attacked very frequently) but there has been an increase in malicous traffic to the web properties I maintain and vapid legal threats have already been attempted. Thing is, before you give people too much credit, note that all the attacks I had seen were crude and elementary (and innocuous except for my own error on the xfam exploit). The xfamily exploit was not much of a hack, I'd opened up dangerous uploads and not screened editors. That has changed and that's that. I'd not read too much into this activity, to put it in perspective Able2Know is attacked several times a day. There's just a lot of malicious traffic out there and websites with a high profile will inevitably be attacked. (reply to this comment)
| | | from Skanska Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 08:44 (Agree/Disagree?) In case any of you are interested, a simple 'whois' search on that IP address from Wikipedia (216.70.243.114; the one who was doing all the deletions or re-wordings to remove anything about the FCF) yields the following: ================================================ 216.70.224.0 - 216.70.255.255 Family Care Foundation FAMILY-CARE-FOUNDATION (NET-216-70-243-112-1) 216.70.243.112 - 216.70.243.127 CustName: Family Care Foundation Address: 1373 Marron Valley Rd City: Dulzura StateProv: CA PostalCode: 91917 Country: US RegDate: 2003-08-19 Updated: 2003-08-19 ================================================ They even tried changing "Family Care" to "Family Car" etc. LOL! Every tactic in a very old book. (reply to this comment)
| from Joseph_S Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 06:20 (Agree/Disagree?) With NDN being one of the older sites, we've been dealing with this kind of thing for years. So many things that it's hard for me to remember them all. One that sticks out in my mind was a complaint from our web host that NDN is a pro-terrorist organization. This complaint, of course, was made in late 2001. We were hosting with a company in Australia at the time, and it really freaked them out, especially when they saw all the discussion of things like child molesting and Berg's anti-semitism all over the place. There is no doubt in my mind that the Family engages in active warfare against the various ex-member sites, and has for a long time. (reply to this comment)
| From Nancy Thursday, February 03, 2005, 09:10 (Agree/Disagree?) Folks, it's time to not put up with this! Time to go on the offensive with these attacks. Time to call a spade a spade. This is a cult we're talking about. One which is anti-Semetic, pro-Palestinian, abused its children, raped its children, exploited its children, conspired to do so, lives in hiding, changes its name regularly, has its members change their names, has its leadership legally change their names, and on and on. If anyone is a terrorist organization between this cult and its victims, then it's the cult. There are legal ramifications to much of the cult's activity, including recent. Time to stop letting it go! (reply to this comment) |
| | From Joseph_S Thursday, February 03, 2005, 10:52 (Agree/Disagree?) You should have seen the email I had to write to the hosting company to keep them from pulling the plug on us. We are all used to hearing this stuff, but outsiders aren't, and you come off like a babbling lunatic trying to explain it. Most of the time, it's hard to prove who is doing it. I was surprised and amused when I ran a "whois" on that wikipedia IP and it came up registered to FCF. What they did on wiki was annoying, but it wasn't a crime, since wikipedia allows anyone to edit pages. I firmly believe that The Family has people with reasonable talent who attempt to disrupt the websites. But, talented people know how to move around. The guys who are really good leave you wondering if there really was an intruder, or if it was just a screw up in the software.(reply to this comment) |
| | from electric Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 04:55 (Agree/Disagree?) Phone records tampered with?what phone records? Tampered? How is that possible? Can you explain? (reply to this comment)
| From Nancy Thursday, February 03, 2005, 06:06 (Agree/Disagree?) My understanding is that someone could not access their phone record and bill online through the service provider's website. Access to the record was blocked because of too many failed attempts to access it with the wrong password. This person had made no unsuccessful attempts himself. You draw the conclusion. Please, remember if you have parents still in the cult and you are speaking out right now, you make yourself a target. The cult's MO is to go to your parents and siblings to get information about you in order to defame you. What they can't get, they often make up. When I said protect yourself, I meant your personal information. Your parents know it all and if they are still in the cult, what's to stop them from handing it over? Your parents know your social security number, your date of birth, your mother's maiden name, etc. Be smart! Protect your records with new passwords. Tell people close to you about your parents. Have a simple Will drawn up, so your parents (aka the cult) are not your heirs if something happens to you. Without a Will, if you are not married, your parents are your heirs in most all states, and they have the authority to dispose of your possessions and property and arrange your services. I have already been to an ex-SGA funeral in which the woman's parents planned it, a nice cult ceremony. It was a slap in the face to this ex-SGA who hated the cult. If you're speaking to the media, go ahead and tell your employer a little bit so they will be caught up to speed if someone contacts them. If you're in school, tell your Dean of Students. Make them aware, so they will look out for you. Protect your vital records. If you suspect any kind of fraud, contact the necessary authorities. I'm not saying to be paranoid. I'm talking about not being naive. This cult is capable of criminal acts, as we have all seen or experienced. Keep that in mind. Protect yourself and the life you worked so hard to build. Don't be intimidated. Just don't make yourself an easy target. (reply to this comment) |
| | from neez Wednesday, February 02, 2005 - 22:47 (Agree/Disagree?) Now this was a laugh: The editor of MyConclusion is apparently getting phone calls from an anonymous caller asking him to take down his site in exchange for the callers name. The caller then finishes by saying I'm outside your house Sidney.. hang on.. no that was the movie Scream. Anyways, he finishes this paranoid fantasy with this statement: "I’m all for dialogue and intelligent conversation, I love debates and I’m more than ready to defend my lifestyle. However I call upon those ex-members who seek to use these tactics to stop. I call on all of us to respect each others privacy." -Dan Johnson Yes we can all see how much he loves honest debating from his joke of a website. http://www.myconclusion.com/archives/2005/01/24/threatening-phone-calls-now/ (reply to this comment)
| | | | | From Marc Thursday, February 03, 2005, 14:36 (Agree/Disagree?) Nancy: Not to dampen the spirit of your post . . . however, there _is_ such a place called "Mexico State" (also known as "Edomex" short for 'Estado de Mexico'). This is just one of the 31 states in Mexico (much like the 50 states in the USA). This state contains the Mexican Federal District (similar to the District of Colombia) and Mexico City (see "Washington D.C."). How is that for a Google lookup, Jersey? Actually, I already knew the above, as I am sort of a geography geek (after all, I have been to 43 countries; shouldn't I know a little about geography?). ;-)(reply to this comment) |
| | From Jerseygirl Thursday, February 03, 2005, 11:20 (Agree/Disagree?) I actually found him a bit silly as well. Besides using the term "rock on", his 3 am fatigue whinning was ridiculous. The only reasons in my book for being awake at 3am are if you are partying, working, or having passionate sex (and of course if you are composing drunken rants on the existence of man--wink wink to Marc). Staying up to write silly messages and then complaining that you are up writing them is just,well, silly!(reply to this comment) |
| | | | From neez Wednesday, February 02, 2005, 23:02 (Agree/Disagree?) Down the bottom of MyConclusion there is this tiny disclaimer: "The authors of some letters chose to use initials or aliases, as they live in locations where publicizing their legal names could put their Christian missionary work at risk." Umm.. Explain that one. How could publicising their legal names possibly put their "missionary" work at risk!? Well I guess being charged with sex crimes & locked up for eternity would affect your ability to be a "missionary".(reply to this comment) |
| | from surfer Wednesday, February 02, 2005 - 20:54 (Agree/Disagree?) Go to google and type in movingon and an ad for myconclusion.com will show up. (reply to this comment)
| From Nancy Thursday, February 03, 2005, 16:40 (Agree/Disagree?) Below is the link to the FCF's Form 990 for 2002. It lists Angela Smith as on the Board of Directors. It also lists Grant Montgomery's salary as $37,000 and Lawrence Corley's is also $37,000, probably because if they paid any one director more than $50K, the had to report that separately. Ken Kelly is also a director. Interstingly, they spent $3.5K that year on legal fees, $18K on phone bills, $42K on contract labor, $3.2K on bank charges, $21K on director serv- retreat support (Maybe that is the cruise Daniel's parents went on with Sara Davidito.), $10K on insurance, $11K in repairs (of what?), $22K in towing and auction car costs (Apparently some folks, a lot of folks, donated their cars.), $134K in car intermediary fees (What is that? Car rentals?), $10K on vehicle fuel & maintenance (how many cars do they have?), $1.3K on workers' comp (Insurance? How many employees do they have?) and $68K on compensation to directors. They lost $9K on stocks they invested in. Now here's the big one! They spent $150K, (read: $150,000), on "marketing-internet search engine" that year. And we wonder why they are a sponsored result when you google "moving on" or "Ricky Rodriguez" or even "Daniel Roselle." This is the year they bought that $389K property from Christine Mlot, one of their director's right? Wasn't that house purchased in 2002? So, tell the public, again, Claire Borowik, that Angela Smith was not a member of the cult. I wonder, too, if it is appropriate for a director to sell her personally owned house to a non-profit for $389,000 three years after she purchased it for $370,000. That is a $23,000 profit. Is that a violation of her fiduciary duties? I don't know. "Capital Lease Payable - Brookside Farms----$326,009" "Capital Lease Payable - Furniture & Fixtures-$63,105" (That's a lot of furniture.) "These leases are with a member of the Board of Directors of Family Care Foundation. The relationship is explained in more detail in Statement 10." (Do show us "Statement 10." Who lives at this property? Why is it being leased with a Board Member?) Why has one of the board members, and treasurer according this 990, been sued a number of times for medical malpractice and wrongful death in California? Have a look for at their 990 for 2002. 990's for other years can be found at guidestar.com http://www.guidestar.org/Documents/2002/330/734/2002-330734917-1-9.pdf(reply to this comment) |
| | From Nancy Thursday, February 03, 2005, 19:44 (Agree/Disagree?) Here are the links to the FCF's 990's for 1997-2001. They all show Angela Smith as a director. Another director they report is Marc Desruisseaux of BC Canada. They also report another "Smith" director (which we know is one of the generic last names the cult's top leadership took when they changed their names). This one is Kim Smith of Huntington Beach, CA. There is also, yet another director reported in these. He is Philip Sherman of Canada. In one of the 990's Angela Smith is listed as a director and secretary, who is paid $5,000. In the 990 for 1997, Tom Hack of CA is listed as a director, as well. You also see the same types of expenses and costs for legal fees, advertising, professional fundraising, employees (Who?), phone bills, leases, director salaries and securities (stocks), as well as interest on investments and cash. http://www.guidestar.org/Documents/1997/330/734/1997-330734917-1-9.pdf http://www.guidestar.org/Documents/1998/330/734/1998-330734917-1-9.pdf http://www.guidestar.org/Documents/1999/330/734/1999-330734917-1-9.pdf http://www.guidestar.org/Documents/2000/330/734/2000-330734917-1-9.pdfhttp://www.guidestar.org/Documents/2000/330/734/2000-330734917-1-9.pdf http://www.guidestar.org/Documents/2001/330/734/2001-330734917-1-9.pdf(reply to this comment) |
| | | | From Nancy Thursday, February 03, 2005, 13:23 (Agree/Disagree?) You get the same ad for myconclusion.com when you google Daniel Roselle's name or Ricky Rodriguez. I'm not sure it's a paid thing because movingon.org comes up as a sponsor when you google David Berg. Unless Jules or someone else paid, then it might not be a paid ad. The cult is skirting a very fine line here when they start doing this stuff to individuals, in my opinion.(reply to this comment) |
| | From Jules Thursday, February 03, 2005, 13:10 (Agree/Disagree?) I saw this when their site first launched. I wasn't too bothered about it, since I do not have the budget to even try to buy ad space and it's not illegal, but it does seem to be in rather poor taste to do something like that. I did put a link to their site on the home page of this one. The favour has not been returned. Something I found that was interesting is that myconclusion.com is listed on a site of domain names bought by a URL merchant, which are being resold. The asking price of this domain was $10,500. Is this a scam or did they really pay that amount for this domain name? http://www.ebizname.com/SubmitABid.cfm?DomainID=7883 One other thing is that harassment, stalking and uttering threats towards individual people are all crimes. Dan J. has every right to host the myconclusion web site and to harass him because of this is illegal. I have been receiving threats myself, both email and PHONE, for years and I know how unpleasant it is. I haven't done anything about it because I assumed it was the work of a few fanatical and misguided teenagers and I have better things to do with my time than get all worked up over something so silly. I wrote Dan privately and suggested he block the whois information to prevent this sort of thing, but have not heard back from him. It goes without saying but harassment, apart from possibly landing the individual doing this trouble, also just feeds into the "them" vs. "us" mentality that some of the SGs in the Family are unfortunately getting so hysterical about. Dan has not done anything wrong in hosting this site, and most of the people writing on there are simply reacting to what they have been told. While the level of hostility towards us is quite nasty, IMO, the people to blame are those giving them the misinformation. The most common complaint is that people speaking out are "attacking their lifestyle". Unless child abuse and protecting pedophiles is part of their lifestyle, this is completely untrue. (reply to this comment) |
| | From ErikMagnusLehnsher Thursday, February 03, 2005, 20:06 (Agree/Disagree?) "I wrote Dan privately and suggested he block the whois information to prevent this sort of thing, but have not heard back from him. It goes without saying but harassment, apart from possibly landing the individual doing this trouble, also just feeds into the "them" vs. "us" mentality that some of the SGs in the Family are unfortunately getting so hysterical about. Dan has not done anything wrong in hosting this site, and most of the people writing on there are simply reacting to what they have been told. While the level of hostility towards us is quite nasty, IMO, the people to blame are those giving them the misinformation." Well put. My sentiments exactly. (reply to this comment) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | From Thursday, February 03, 2005, 10:22 (Agree/Disagree?) I just put together a quick HTML page that refreshes itself every second using the link for the sponsored ad. It's running in the background as I type. :) Not sure if they'll get billed, but they should be happy with the 86400 hits they get today. :) Hmmm....then again, that might boost their Alexa ratings.(reply to this comment) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | from roughneck Wednesday, February 02, 2005 - 20:39 (Agree/Disagree?) I'd hate to give TF too much credit for smarts.. however script kiddie they may be :) Personally I'd credit the huge exposure this site (as well as the other prominent exer sites) has received as of late in the news media for the events of which you speak. Perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part. As for the Wikipedia edits, alas, such is the case with a wiki: anyone can change, modify and delete content. I guess we'll have to Wiki-war them to death on top of everything else, eh? (reply to this comment)
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