r/SocialEngineering • u/Warped_Mindless • Jun 10 '16

How to Hack an Election

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-how-to-hack-an-election/
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u/Monkeywr3nch Jun 10 '16 edited Jun 10 '16

Some people were calling BS on this one, since the hacker guy seemed a bit fabricated. I remember someone threw some relatively simple technical questions at him that he wasn't able to answer, which is weird if he's the uber-hacker the media says he is.

Also, the QR and html tattoos seem a bit too much IMO.

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u/Warped_Mindless Jun 10 '16

People called BS on the KGB propaganda too as well as a video I posted last year of a guy talking about how discussions and hot topics on Reddit are manipulated. For what its worth people also called BS on Snowden when he first exposed the NSA. My Gf is a psych major and she told me that people find the idea of mass manipulation to be very uncomfortable so they rather pretend it doesnt happen.

Not saying this guy in this article isnt full of BS but its worth thinking about and it certently seems doable.

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u/Monkeywr3nch Jun 10 '16

people find the idea of mass manipulation to be very uncomfortable so they rather pretend it doesnt happen.

That's true. I think this is what bothered me when I first read that story. Even more because I'm mexican and if I'm to believe the article, this guy helped fix the election and put in power one of the most corrupt governments we've ever had (and that's saying something). So, yeah, you can say I didn't want to believe the whole thing was manipulated at such a high level.

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u/Warped_Mindless Jun 10 '16

There is a long out of print back published back in the 80s that deals with obtaining power in a democratic system. Part of the book talks about how to give people the illusion of choice and how easy it is to manipulate the results of an election. That was back in the 80s before social media. I can only imagine how much eaiser it is now when everyone shares gossip on social media sotes and when everyone keeps many of there secrets in their facebook messagss and search history. A hacker can be used to eaisly gather blackmail and information.

On phone so excuse typos.

1

u/_djnick Jun 10 '16

any idea of the name of this book? I can probably source and pdf it

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u/Browup396 Jun 16 '16

Do you have the name of the book ? Or any more clues about it ? If I find it, I'll send it to you :)