More information on this campaign to be launched on the day of the General Election poster campaign on Upstart.ie
Calling all artists – Upstart!
January 10th, 2011 · General Election 2011, Irish Politics
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Why was the Fine Gael website hacked?
January 10th, 2011 · General Election 2011, Irish Politics, Social Media
Fine Gael are saying that they do not know why their website was hacked. (as per Paschal Donohue’s appearance on Six One News this evening.)
In the statement that was sent this morning to Kevin Doyle, political correspondent in the Evening Herald, the hackers explained why. They also sent Kevin a copy of the database they had hacked of approx 3,800 entries which made up 2000 different email addresses.
‘Anonymous’ said it defaced the website because Fine Gael was being “terribly dishonest” and censoring comments from the public.
As proof, it issued the media with a database that includes the personal details of nearly 4,000 people who posted on the site.
In a statement, Anonymous said that Fine Gael were “a bunch of lying, deceitful conmen . . . We know as well as everyone else that all you people are interested in is your own back pocket.”
The database suggests that the Party had censored comments posted as part of what they had called the “biggest consultation” ever undertaken with the electorate.
Several posts calling on Fine Gael to “get rid” of Enda Kenny as leader never made it onto the website. The information also confirmed that Green TD Paul Gogarty was among those who commented on the site.
The hackers managed to access the names, email, phone numbers, constituency and the location from where they viewed the website.
Meanwhile Electionmall.com who host the website in Miami have called in the FBI and Fine Gael have called in the Gardai and are consulting with the Data Protection Commissioners who are investigating the attack.
Maybe Fine Gael will finally explain why the site was moved to the USA once and for all rather than the security reasons or Alan Shatter TD’s explanation last night that it was for ‘bandwidth and technical’ reasons. I’m sure that Google, Facebook, Amazon and IBM to name a few multinationals located here have plenty of bandwidth or they would be off.
A very bad week for Fine Gael
January 9th, 2011 · Elections, General Election 2011, Irish Politics
After the Brazillian copying, the hosting outside of the state with their election guru, the numerous questions on data privacy, the changes to the site in response to those questions, tonight Anonymous visited the new FG website and left some dodgy html and visitors received the following message.
Photo thanks to @Darraghdoyle – via Politics.ie
Ah yes all the data is secure and their experts know what they’re doing – well that is what FG have been saying. And some people thought that I was gossiping or something?
Update
The Data Protection Commissioner is now investigating if data submitted by visitors and commenters has ben compromised.
Mr Hawkes has confirmed that he has been contacted by Fine Gael in relation to the attack, as the party suspects that the personal data of those who posted comments or registered their details has been compromised.
Fine Gael has also contacted the Garda Computer Crime Unit in relation to the attack.
Michele Neylon has some interesting questions on the hosting and domain registration
Brian Honan has lots of good points on security and data protection issues.
Stewart has a copy of the email being sent by Fine Gael to people who left details on the website.
The reason for many of our problems…
January 8th, 2011 · Elections, General Election 2011, Irish Politics
Mr Lenihan said the Opposition was to blame for many of the problems facing the State because it failed to prevent the Government’s mistakes.
“We put our hands in the air and say we were responsible – but in fact one of the main reasons that . . . we were able to make those mistakes is we were not checked by a strong Opposition.”
Conor Lenihan in The Irish Times. Just remember that one folks. It’s up there with evolution and kebabs and the like – in fact it surpasses them. By the way Mary Minihan’s interviews and political coverage is becoming a must read these days in the Irish Times – looking forward to a lot more!
What will be in the Manifestos?
January 7th, 2011 · Elections, Equality, General Election 2011, Irish Politics, LGBT, Same Sex Partnerships, Social Policy
No doubt there is a lot of fevered scribbling going on amongst political parties at the moment with regards to writing their manifestos to be launched during General Election 2011.
After the election during the coalition negotiations a Programme for Government will be produced with more lobbying by pressure groups and priorities slipping in the battle for power.
I have written before about the narrowness of political manifestos with regard to LGBT rights with a focus on marriage and relationship recognition and little else. There have been few if any public commitments by political parties with regards to hate crime, education, health, foreign affairs etc. Since the last general election we have seen huge cuts to equality and human rights infrastructures which should also concern LGBT voters in choosing a party to vote for.
If you are interested in the manifesto’s which were produced by the parties in the 2007 election, Michael Pidgeon has an excellent online resource with copies of them hosted as the political parties seem to have taken them down from their own sites.
Another interesting publication is the UK Government’s programme for government. Note that this is sanctioned by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats as part of their coalition deal and highlights numerous commitments across departmental portfolios. Whether it is fully implemented is debatable but it’s impressive in its breadth.
Hopefully I and others will be reviewing and commenting on party manifestos on a number of policy issues when published and the programme for government. I will also provide coverage to the publication of manifestos of civil society groupings which are of interest. (Email: tips(AT)mamanpoulet.com)
But for the moment what issues concern you with regard to LGBT issues in your life and those living around you? What would make you vote for a particular party?
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