Labour Website Leak

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eXDee

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Topic # 85145 14-Jun-2011 18:28

I didn't see a topic on this already, however the Herald put an article up today and Nate has a blog post on it
I agree with nate's comment:

Epic fail on the part of Labour's web team? You bet.

However, who is labour's web team?

EDIT: Original post removed. Mark updated his blog with new information, Boost is not responsible, another party is. Hopefully more information on exactly who caused it will follow.
http://markhansen.co.nz/labour-party-leaks/

Thoughts?

eXDee

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Reply # 481145 14-Jun-2011 18:49

Furthermore, WhaleOil states:

"If Labour can't run a website, or a series of websites, they certainly can't be trusted to run the country"

I think this is just him following his own political agenda, because running a website != running a country, and furthermore if the assumptions above are correct, Labour isn't running the website, Boost is.

Full Disclosure: I currently do not support Labour, National or any other political party.

gzt

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Reply # 481148 14-Jun-2011 19:05

In reality, we do not yet know what Boost's area of responsibility is in this. It is possible Boost provided only initial development and turnkey hosting, and the customer party now has the keys to the engine, even if boost is keeping a spare set.

eXDee: If i had to make an assumption, i would think there's enough evidence there that Boost both created and appears to be responsible for maintaining it.

Given just how basic and obvious this configuration error appears to be - it seems just as reasonable to assume no professional could have made this mistake. The question is really, still who made this error?

Don't suppose anyone has seen a cache with the admin/ip logs, and timestamped backup config?

nate

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Reply # 481150 14-Jun-2011 19:10

gzt: In reality, we do not yet know what Boost's area of responsibility is in this. It is possible Boost provided only initial development and turnkey hosting, and the customer party now has the keys to the engine, even if boost is keeping a spare set.

Completely plausible scenario.

It would be very embarrassing for Boost if it is shown that they are responsible for all this.

nigelj

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Reply # 481154 14-Jun-2011 19:23

That Mark Hansen post is quite interesting.

My personal views (note, I'm slightly biased as an ex-Labour Party member) are similar to Mark's, I first heard about it when I got an e-mail from Chris Flatt the 'Labour Party General Secretary', I am on their mailing lists (although I've been meaning off & on to unsubscribe...

I can only assume that at least my name & e-mail address has been leaked, any other information is a bit worthless to them, address can likely be obtained from the electoral roll, and any credit card details have long since expired.

It seems that what both sides have said, are a bit disappointing, Whaleoil is saying "Labour is lying about everything" and Labour seem to be going along the lines "We won't name him, but he's done something wrong, and we don't like it". Typical cross-party mudslinging by the sounds of it to me. I think the defence that "I wasn't hacking, it was free-for-all" is a bit weak, I'd expect that most (if not all) bloggers that have been blogging for such a long time, would realise when something is not quite right, and let "the others know" (so to speak).

As for the chances that I'm on the list, well I don't care, I'd always expected to be on a list somewhere that could be publicly disclosed/leaked/lost that identifies me as a donor, that is something that goes along with been a political money donor.... But I'm sure Whaleoil can go join those guys called "Lulzsec" now, I think he just qualified.

eXDee

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Reply # 481156 14-Jun-2011 19:27

edit: Mark has updated his blog, as a statement has been received that boost is not responsible.

dacraka

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Reply # 481255 14-Jun-2011 23:29

Google Cache for healthyhomeshealthykiwis.org.nz shows up a bit of back-end config data for Labour's site - not sure what to make out of it exactly myself but I'm sure some people would!