When you’re a Twitchy editor you write about some crazy stuff. It’s a benefit and a challenge of the position, true story. Most of the time we sit back and laugh THEN write about it so you all can laugh with us.
Like Beto O’Rourke supposedly having been in the Cult of the Dead Cow.
That’s not the name of his punk band when he dressed up like a unicorn or whatever the animal. Nope, it’s apparently the name of a group of hackers from the ’90s.
Fresh U.S presidential candidate @BetoORourke was a member of the country’s oldest hacking group, which has kept his role a secret for decades – until now. My story is up on Reuters at https://t.co/pvdNu7p7Yg, but let me say a little more in this thread. (1/10) pic.twitter.com/luGt4QDhnK
— Joseph Menn (@josephmenn) March 15, 2019
That this is real life still has us shaking our heads, every day.
O’Rourke wasn't just a random hacker who stole long-distance service to reach bulletin boards, where tech-savvy people hung out online before the Web. As a teen, he also belonged to the notorious and wildly influential Cult of the Dead Cow https://t.co/Yrfa1VrXj5 (2/10) pic.twitter.com/GjScCt3mja
— Joseph Menn (@josephmenn) March 15, 2019
Notorious and wildly influential … and now he wants to be our president.
K.
The revelation makes O’Rourke the most prominent ex-hacker in American political history. It also fits: he was already known for being rebel enough to tour in a punk band, to unseat a Congressman from his own Democratic party, and to support gun control in Texas. (3/10) pic.twitter.com/uqVYDJpAwL
— Joseph Menn (@josephmenn) March 15, 2019
So much ANGST in these photos, HA HA HA HA.
Are those flowers on his shirt?
You know what, we don’t wanna know.
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#CultoftheDeadCow burst onto the national scene as the biggest exemplar of hacker culture in 1998, at Def Con, when the group released Back Orifice, which let almost anyone take control of someone else’s computer. https://t.co/x992vObJ3A (4/10) pic.twitter.com/sIAQ4I6kI8
— Joseph Menn (@josephmenn) March 15, 2019
EEK.
*quickly changes passwords to EVERYTHING*
The group released a more sophisticated version the following year, forcing #Microsoft to get serious about security. And cDc coined the term “hacktivism,” to describe politically motivated hacking, with Chinese censorship as the cDc’s first target. https://t.co/1otnSpkVzC (5/10)
— Joseph Menn (@josephmenn) March 15, 2019
Hrm.
Then I saw stories on @BetoORourke, who had started running in the Senate primary in Texas to face off against @tedcruz. Looking at where he was from, and his history and style, I guessed he was the one. My sources in the cDc didn’t confirm it, but they didn’t deny it. (7/10) pic.twitter.com/t91cTWbr5m
— Joseph Menn (@josephmenn) March 15, 2019
It’s when they don’t deny it that you start to wonder.
No one in cDc would talk about O’Rourke until I promised not to publish before the 2018 election. That was OK: I wanted the full story for my book, which spans decades, rather than 1 scoop ahead of a state vote. I offered O’Rourke the same terms. He accepted, and we spoke. (8/10) pic.twitter.com/psZCnSD9ZP
— Joseph Menn (@josephmenn) March 15, 2019
Yeah, he’s selling a book … but still, this is some crazy stuff.
No one thought he would lose the Senate race & immediately enter onto an even bigger stage, but here we are, and the embargo is up. The book is out soon, O’Rourke is running for president, and people should hear the missing part of his story. https://t.co/kIjQirAetE (9/10)
— Joseph Menn (@josephmenn) March 15, 2019
As we said, he’s selling a book BUT if any of this is true … probably something Beto should answer for, doncha think?
But only if he promises to dress up like a cow. OMG WE’RE JUST KIDDING.
Sorta.
Reuters reports Beto O'Rourke was a phreaker (phone hacker) in the Cult of the Dead Cow (80s-90s hacking group), and under alias “Psychedelic Warlord” he wrote a fiction story as a teen about stealing happiness from children by hitting them with his car: https://t.co/gXLCCFrCvW pic.twitter.com/SHfRxMpxfl
— Tony Webster (@webster) March 15, 2019
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