Comments on: Russian Spam, Slander, and Hacked Accounts

By: frik

frik — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 10:13:32 +0000

I’m not at liberty to comment further on the sources of my evidence. But it is based on logic. All I will say is that it takes much more of a leap of faith to believe that there was a spammer behind the attack, that hacked into her account, than if it were written by Alison herself. The simplest explanation is the best. It was written by Alison herself. No elaborate hacker scheme needed. I never divulged any personal opinions about Alison. I just am thinking l0gically here – it makes more sense that Alison was on something, then to believe a contrived hacker story. And what cracks me up is that this hacker chooses a couple days after Alison resigned to hack into her account. Amusing, isn’t it.

By: Roy Natian

Roy Natian — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:56:13 +0000

To use the skewed version of Occam’s Razor: The simplest explanations are most likely the correct ones. It sounds more like you have some personal opinions of Alison that are clouding your judgment. You have no evidence for any of your assertions.

“…under the influence of some substance or another.” Really? How can you be sure? Why do you think this? EVIDENCE!!! Give me evidence.

By: frik

frik — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:27:57 +0000

I think you are letting your personal opinions about Alison cloud rational judgement on this matter. A more likely scenario is that a disgruntled Alison sent out a message in anger – perhaps she was under the influence of some substance or another. A few hours later, Alison comes to reality and decides to make it look as if it has been a hack job. She then sends out a message to the entire facebook group in Russian. That would also explain why a student’s comment that she really had resigned was deleted from her facebook, and the messages from students who claimed it was a hacker on her wall stayed. That would also explain the total disconnect between the two messages. Otherwise, why would a hacker send out such a message in plain English, and then a few hours later convert her whole profile to Russian. I believe this was a last-ditch effort by Alison to save face, after she slandered the SSA.

By: Barry Greenstein

Barry Greenstein — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:03:37 +0000

The Russkies are at it again! *cough* ColdWarTwo *cough*

Just kidding.

I did not think for one second that a disgruntled Allison was behind this. Considering the juvenile nature of the disinformation, I don’t even think there was any motivation involved than just being a jerk and a troll, so unless it happens again I’m looking to just forget about it.

By: Robin Zhang

Robin Zhang — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 05:16:22 +0000

I heard about the same thing going on in Lithuania because the nation decided to take down a memorial commemorating Josef Stalin. Surely enough, Russian nationalists began sabotaging Lithuanian government websites and claiming that they were Nazis.

By: Hemant Mehta

Hemant Mehta — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:23:35 +0000

Hi Roy and other readers. I am posting this message on Facebook as well:

I know everyone’s curious about the messages that were sent out earlier. I’ve spoken with Alison Bates, and she says the messages were sent by an unknown person who hacked into her Facebook account. We don’t have a way to guarantee the security of our staff’s personal Facebook accounts, but we’ll continue to moderate this group as best we can. Some of you are already aware that Alison stepped down as the Secular Student Alliance’s Field Director a few days ago, before this happened. We’re grateful for the work she did and we wish her the best of luck. Rest assured that the Secular Student Alliance will continue to provide useful resources to its ever-growing list of affiliates, and we look forward to a very successful school year!

– Hemant Mehta (Chair of SSA’s Board of Directors)

By: Ty

Ty — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:07:26 +0000

Obviously it was Putin…: /

By: Roy Natian

Roy Natian — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:59:50 +0000

Yep, I agree. We should just state the facts and keep it at that.

By: Ian Bushfield

Ian Bushfield — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:48:47 +0000

Thanks for the overview Roy. I’m sure many campus leaders await further clearing up of this issue as the SSA has often been as vital as CFI. It’s events like this that really show us the need for proper scepticism (i.e. not jumping to unwarranted conclusions).