Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday 24 July 2018

Mystery: Who bought websites implying U.S. senators 'for sale'

By TAMI ABDOLLAH before the Democrats
Associated Press bought the ones with the
WASHINGTON (AP) — Doz- senators' names, and with-
ens of web addresses im- in seconds of each other.
plying U.S. senators were The address implying the
"for sale" have been qui- Supreme Court was for sale
etly and mysteriously was purchased last month.
purchased online, amid "It's no different from dot-
heightened concerns on sucks," said Paul Vixie, a
Capitol Hill that foreign highly regarded computer
agents — especially Rus- scientist who helped de-
sians — might be trying to sign the system of internet
meddle in upcoming mid- addresses currently in use.
term elections. "Social commentary has
An Associated Press inves- always thrived on the in-
tigation found the respon- ternet, due to reach and
sible party: Democrats. cost issues. These politicians
The Democratic Senatorial are right to reserve those
Campaign Committee ac- names, but wrong if they
knowledged to the AP that think other domains only
it had quietly purchased slightly less clean won't ap-
the addresses, which use pear."
a new internet suffix "for- Warren's staff declined
sale," in March for at least In this Jan. 21, 2018 file photo, lights shine inside the U.S. Capitol Building as night falls in Washington. to comment, as did Mc-
27 incumbent senators fac- Associated Press Caskill's and Cruz's. Heller,
ing re-election this fall and Casey, Heitkamp, Sand-
in 2020, without telling the like DCLeaks.com and us- U.S. dirty-tricksters, prank- internet suffix "forsale" first ers and Wicker did not re-
senators. The cybersecurity ing anonymous Twitter ac- sters or speculators hoping made available in 2015 spond to questions. The
director for the sergeant- counts to peddle embar- eventually to sell the web and intended to help con- GOP, DNC and NRA also
at-arms, the highest-rank- rassing information about addresses to campaigns sumers sell unwanted items did not respond to ques-
ing U.S. law enforcement U.S. politicians. or their rivals. None of the without paying auction tions from the AP.
officer in the Senate, has U.S. intelligence chief Dan addresses for the senators sites. The addresses the The U.S. Senate Sergeant
been looking into the mat- Coats has cautioned that appears to be associated Democrats registered in- at Arms Office declined to
ter. the "warning lights are with an operational web- cluded the names of Sens. comment on the "active
The addresses now con- blinking red" and that "the site, obscuring motives for Bob Casey, D-Pa.; Claire defense" of its system.
trolled by the Democratic digital infrastructure that future uses. Unlike in cases McCaskill, D-Mo.; King; Politicians and celebrities,
political group include the serves this country is literally where so-called squatters Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; especially, have trademark
names of mostly Demo- under attack." register web addresses Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Heidi rights to their own names,
crats but some prominent The mysterious "forsale" pur- they hope to sell for profit, Heitkamp, D-N.D.; Bernie and can file a complaint
Republicans, too. The chases set off alarms. AP's there were no indications Sanders, I-Vt.; Roger Wick- and request arbitration
group masked its role in the review found roughly 280 the addresses were being er, R-Miss. and Dean Heller, through the World Intellec-
purchase to ensure its iden- political web addresses made available for resale R-Nev. tual Property Organization
tity as the buyer remained registered under the "forsa- or populated with ads to The technology infrastruc- or the National Arbitration
anonymous. The current le" domain, targeting Presi- make money. ture of the U.S. Senate and Forum with whoever reg-
price for such addresses, dent Donald Trump, the Tim Groeling, an expert on its offices around the coun- istered the website, ac-
with a privacy guard, is GOP, Supreme Court and political communication try are the responsibility of cording to Alexander Ur-
roughly $18 each. National Rifle Association, and new media at the Uni- the sergeant at arms. Terry belis, a partner at the New
"It's a routine campaign as well as individual Dem- versity of California, Los An- Gainer, who previously York-based Blackstone Law
practice to purchase URLs ocrats and Republicans. geles, said the anonymity served as sergeant at arms Group who detected the
to stop bad actors from The Democratic Senato- sought by the Democratic until 2014, said that if he new registrations.
getting them, and if we rial Campaign Committee group was what troubled had learned of the myste- "It's a really nutty thing to
eventually decided to de- said it was responsible for him. The identities of who- rious addresses in the cur- do unilaterally because it's
velop a URL into a web- at least 27 of them target- ever registered the websites rent political environment, going to set off alarm bells,"
site then there would be a ing U.S. senators and didn't were purposefully masked. he would have his cyber- Urbelis said.
clear disclosure of who was provide further details. He said it's common for security officer as well as Rick Tyler, a longtime Re-
operating it," said Lauren "In this particular atmo- campaigns to purchase the Capitol Police made publican political consul-
Passalacqua, communica- sphere, anything along permutations of candidate aware. He said he would tant, said such website
tions director at the DSCC. these lines is concerning, names defensively and to also ask the Secret Service purchases are typical cam-
Buying politically-related because there's so much use offensively against po- and FBI to investigate. paign tactics. He said third
web addresses to use them opportunity for malicious litical opponents. "I don't believe in coinci- parties, like super PACs,
later online — or prevent ri- use of the internet, partic- "The lack of transparency dences, and again, what's are often used so the cam-
val campaigns from using ularly in campaigns," said is both concerning from a been going on since the paigns themselves appear
them — has been a routine Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, standpoint of the potential whole Russian intrusions, virtuous.
practice for decades. But before AP solved the mys- for other governments to there'd be much more sen- "Ultimately in all of this, with
Washington has been trans- tery. King declined to com- do this type of thing and sitivity about taking a look the Russian meddling and
fixed by criminal charges ment after learning from not be revealed, and our at this," Gainer said. the fake news ... it gets
filed against Russian mili- AP that Democrats were domestic politics," Gro- It was unclear who pur- very confusing," Tyler said.
tary officers accused of se- responsible. eling said. "I'm a big fan of chased the addresses tar- "I think the information con-
cretly meddling in the 2016 The latest actions show transparency. I think a lot geting the NRA, GOP and sumer has to just beware,
presidential campaign, ac- how lines and motives in of things can be fixed with others. Internet records they have to learn to dis-
cused by federal prosecu- American politics can blur sunlight." showed they were pur- cern what is true, and what
tors of setting up websites among foreign adversaries, The addresses use the new chased anonymously hours is not."q