-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- It would appear that the "Bob Rae Forgery" had its standard 15 minutes of fame: From: eye@interlog.com (eye WEEKLY) Newsgroups: eye.news,ont.general,alt.internet.media-coverage Subject: EYE.NET: Mike Harris -- Roasted Alive Followup-To: eye.general,ont.general,alt.internet.media-coverage Date: 14 Dec 1994 11:00:20 -0500 Organization: eye -- Toronto's Arts Newspaper Lines: 160 Approved: eye@interlog.com Message-ID: <3cn4qk$ec0@gold.interlog.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: gold.interlog.com Summary: Ontario PC leader pulls net.related bonehead political stunt Xref: io.org eye.news:307 ont.general:20751 alt.internet.media-coverage:2470 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eye WEEKLY December 15 1994 Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EYE.NET EYE.NET MIKE HARRIS: ROASTED ALIVE Clueless PC leader mercilessly flamed for net-related political stunt by K.K. CAMPBELL On Dec 8, provincial PC leader Mike Harris stood in the Legislature and introduced a copy of a post to the newsgroup ont.general -- a public forum where anything of general interest to Ontarians is discussed. The post in question was signed "Bob Rae." It talked about the sexual orientation of Marion Boyd, the Karla Homolka case, and a few other things. Harris wasn't claiming Rae actually wrote it, he was suggesting it was proof of a serious "security violation" in government computer systems. Simulataneously, the PCS issued a press release entitled "Our Premier: Roadkill on the Information Highway." We regularly warn Our Faithful Readers about eyeNET's Rule#1: When strangers approach wielding the "highway metaphor," run. Do not speak with them. Do not make eye contact. Last week, eyeNET predicted many new and entertaining adventures could result from Ontario's premier getting online. We expected the shenanigans would come from anonymous net.weenies and assorted loons, not Mike Harris. ARTIFICIAL BOB It began innocently on Sunday Dec 3, at 1:22:41 a.m. (EST), when an anonymous individual posted a message called "Greetings to People of Ontario's Information Highway" to ont.general . It was faked so the "From:" line said "premier@govonca.gov.on.ca", Rae's office. Ontarians read it. Ontarians ignored it. The general response was best summed up by Toronto's Val Dodge (val@io.org), who wrote: "Am I the only one getting tired of [these spoof posts]? OK, the first couple were funny, but this is getting really tedious." No one thought it was from Rae. No one thought it was from "hackers invading government computers." Netters just looked at the PATH line and could see the post worked its way to Ontario from a California computer. On top of that, in the header it plainly says: "This message is NOT from the person listed in the from line. It is from an automated software remailing service..." Fake posts are part of net.life, but this one wasn't even a "forgery" (a real attempt to pretend to be someone else), it was a "spoof" (an "imitation" no one is expected to believe). A parody. Hardly a "security violation," unless Harris thinks all political impersonators represent "security violations." What if terminally dense Americans thought impersonator Dana Carvey really _was_ George Bush? Oh my GAWD! Call the cops! Rae's staff had noticed the fake post. Like the rest of the net.community, they just ignored it. After all, even the stupidest elements of the net community hadn't been fooled... why worry? They didn't account for Mike Harris. Five days later Harris issued his now famous "Roadkill" press release which includes the line "Internet Bob: the hacker is hacked." PC press secretary, Peter Varney, told eye the Conservatives weren't trying to score political points. They sincerely thought this harmless post was a "threat to Ontario's security" -- though Varney couldn't explain why Harris attempted to grandstand. And it's exactly that attempt to make political points from the matter that most angers Ontario netters. Sensationalization and playing on the ignorance of the press (which was as rampant as ever). The PCs swear they never saw the very explicit disclaimer in the fake Rae post because the newsreader of the person who "slipped" them this oh-so-dangerous document edited out most header information. It's plausible -- many newsreaders chop stuff from headers (headers contain info to help direct and organize posts for ease of reading). But ignorance hardly excuses Harris. In our conversation, Varney, trying to save face, actually suggested the simple ability to make a spoof post (and fool Mike Harris, I guess) is still a "security threat." So what are they asking Rae to do about it? Call in the OPP and stormtroop around cyberspace? THE NET STRIKES BACK The net.community's responses in ont.general have been a virtually unanimous condemnation of Harris. Several threads (i.e., discussions) developed, the longest one entitled "MIKE HARRIS IS SLIME." It originated with Brampton's Evan Leibovitch (evan@telly.on.ca), who wrote he didn't blame the "impersonator" because "children will be children", but "the people who fed this item to Harris are absolute assholes... My respect for Harris and the Ontario PCs has just taken a nosedive, and I hope the scum who were behind this realize that they have scored *NO* political points for pulling this stunt." In another thread, Toronto's Jamie Mason (g1jmason@cdf.toronto.edu) wrote: "Anyone who has been on the net for more than about FIVE MINUTES would realize that the message was a forgery. Anyone who has been on the net for more that about TEN minutes wouldn't even take notice of the message." T. Kim Nguyen (kim@algorithmics.com) likened the Harris bluff to "the way he paraded the woman quitting her job to go on welfare last year. His antics of the last few weeks trying to make the NDP look bad have simply succeeded in showing how much of a ridiculous opportunist he is." GENUINE BOB Late Friday afternoon (Dec 9, 5:24 pm), the Premier of Ontario (premier@govonca.gov.on.ca) issued his first real post to ont.general. It was called "Thanks" and read, in its entirety: "Many thanks to those of you who flamed the PC pranksters. I knew when I went online that I would have to deal with fake posts and related chaff. That's the price of being on the Net. I'm not about to delete my account. I still want to hear from people with *real* concerns and *real* suggestions." Signed: "Bob*The Genuine Article*Rae" eye called the premier's office. They confirm it's real. The premier's office made it clear it won't launch any investigation as to where the parody post came from -- and for that it should be applauded. I've talked with many people who don't understand the net and when something they don't like happens they invariably respond: "I'm going to shut the Internet down!" The Rae team is doing it's best to fit into the net.community, not remake it. Varney, on the other hand, says the PCs will actively pursue anyone who "impersonates" Mike Harris online. FRESH ROADKILL! Oh no! Look! Just spotted in ont.general! A breach in PC security!! Alert! Alert! Call the newsmedia! On Dec 10, "Mike Harris" supposedly posted a missive called "Mike Harris Fights Back - Kiss My Ass Rae!" to the net. It reads, in part: "You listen here Rae, my sources informed me that your article was on the level. You sleazy NDP wimps are more than capable of resorting to cheap shots like this, so I thought I'd pin one on your grain-fed ass... DAMN I'm mad!!!" Signed: "Mike Harris, Progressive Consevative (sic) Party of Ontario." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Retransmit freely in cyberspace Author holds standard copyright Issues of eye in archive gopher://interlog.com Coupla Mailing lists available http://www.interlog.com/eye eye@interlog.com "Break the Gutenberg Lock..." 416-971-8421 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBLvD223BFBj7pSNyhAQElcwf/Yv79UuYHOa8YJHDpZGHp8GlmD7WpoddK HaUr/EHvGJdB18UaSX99lZtLVDErFdrgk1xVvXQbIYAeLFpd1SmxMDUAqKUjqcMJ 4zZbqR7hKS66D++MRCWE/JCrxyEcyQPGXDNEXRel4XQZBv83FKI6qsLTccLfYaQN zozSr7CLjvM7Fv877znvLYQ/wvcvBRO4B1yCbj++/ENP4o7xL/BXSeoWYMJcdcFO X+qTqNj4b3A1YU6Phc5ciTHy/UeOUAtyWDAXXDmswXAkwDPWBUT3f0twJcIzjiRP RzkYASYIa21DYxhiR89vWL7NfcfnLYj7YHuG3Rc83wZLaxMhNLPCKw== =RZZ8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----