The communications director for Montana's lone congressman solicited the services of two men he falsely believed to be criminally minded hackers-for-hire -- with the expressed goal of jacking up his college GPA -- during an exchange that spanned 22 e-mails over two weeks this past summer.
Todd Shriber, 28-year-old press aide to U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., e-mailed the security Web site attrition.org on Aug. 9, writing: "I need to urgently make contact with a hacker that would be interested in doing a one-time job for me. The pay would be good. I'm not sure what exactly the job would entail with respect to computer jargon, but I can go into rough detail upon making contact with a candidate."
(Update: Shriber fired.)
If Shriber actually had a clue, he would have figured out that most of attrition's staff members are just serious computer industry security geeks who like to get wild and nerdy with others of their species at places like defcon where they indulge in all manner of geekboy pranks and manic sexual and drinking adventures (so I've heard...). Their type is usually referred to as 'white hat hackers' - the people who hack for Good™ as opposed to Evil™ reasons (although Black Hat hackers provide some Good™ services as well - just in a bit more shady way). attrition's website isn't a 'Nefarious Hackers for Hire' ad and if you poke around long enough, you'll find some very (ahem) interesting stuff. (Hackers are a strange and varied breed).
Anyway, no wonder Shriber's university grades sucked. He obviously doesn't know how to do research and for a guy who was a press aide, that's pretty pathetic.
One more thing: you have to read through those 22 e-mails. What a hoot! And, meet Jericho.
h/t Talking Points Memo
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