back to article Vandals break into congressman's office, install Linux on PCs

A US congressmen has been left incensed after miscreants installed Linux on computers at his campaign office, possibly thrashing some data in the process. Michael Grimm, a Republican who represents a district in New York covering Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, has slammed the weekend break-in to his offices on as a " …

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  1. handle

    Well yes of course it will be recoverable

    Or most of it will, even if the drive has been reformatted, which it is likely to have been - from NTFS to Ext4 for instance. The original data is there unless you overwrite it, and a normal disk format does not do that. Adding an OS is likely only to use a small amount of the disk - probably that which used to contain system files rather than data anyway. But it could be rather tedious to restore, and it's likely to have many small holes in it from the formatting process.

    1. jptech
      FAIL

      Re: Well yes of course it will be recoverable

      not if it was dbanned.

      And certainly not if it was was zeroed. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

      never assume you know what you're talking about.

      1. Ben Tasker

        Re: Well yes of course it will be recoverable

        Did you miss the part where he said it would be recoverable if you hadn't overwritten it.

        Overwriting with zero's is, well, overwriting.

        I quite like the stink this guy's kicked up, especially when you see the follow up story explaining that an 8th grader broke the window, and a member of staff accidentally formatted the drive by using a Linux install disc!

        1. Wilseus

          Overwriting with zero's is, well, overwriting.

          I'm sure I've read before that under laboratory conditions, it is sometimes possible to retrieve information from a hard disc even if it has been later overwritten with zeroes, or even random bytes.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Overwriting with zero's is, well, overwriting.

            Umm, I doubt they would have been able to do that in the space of a weekend, unless the disks were tiny by today's standards.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Overwriting with zero's is, well, overwriting.

              I imagine if the actual aim was to erase incriminating records of dodgy donations, the 'perp' probably had as much time as he needed before the alarm was raised.

              1. This Side Up
                Devil

                Re: Overwriting with zero's is, well, overwriting.

                But of course the congressman would have had a recent off-site backup, wouldn't he?

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: Overwriting with zero's is, well, overwriting.

                  Actually, the article says yes, he did. Planned ahead for 8th grade attacks and ubuntu disks.

          2. PyLETS
            Mushroom

            @Wilseus

            Under lab conditions very small amounts of data can be obtained from disks overwritten with zeros very, very expensively. It's to do with the thermal movement of disk heads - if the overwrite is at a different temperature from that at which the original write occurred traces obtainable through electron microscopy may be obtainable. Those protecting nuclear weapons codes and keys need to be aware of this kind of thing, but it isn't likely to be a practical data recovery technique unless the data is of abnormally high value. So the chances are that your old PCs can be donated to charity if you do half a dozen cycles of zeros followed by ones followed by crypto strong pseudorandom. That's probably for spinning media only though. It's not yet known to be reliable if you are using SSDs or hybrid spinning media with SSD cacheing, due to the effects of wear leveling and blocks being put out of use, without equivalently audited as secure and easy to use erasure methods normally being used or available.

            If you are into nuclear secrets though, you should certainly consider grinding your storage devices into dust and then incinerating the dust the moment they are taken out of active service.

          3. FIA Silver badge

            Re: Overwriting with zero's is, well, overwriting.

            I'm sure I've read before that under laboratory conditions, it is sometimes possible to retrieve information from a hard disc even if it has been later overwritten with zeroes, or even random bytes.

            That used to be true with old HDs, but not for anything built in the last 15 years or so.

            More <a href="http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html#Epilogue">here.</a>

          4. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: under laboratory conditions, it is sometimes possible

            IIRC that depends on retrieving out-of-track traces of previous bits, but modern drives work at such high density and with such precise tracking that it's unlikely to work.

          5. Mephistro
            Devil

            Re: Overwriting with zero's is, well, overwriting. (@ Wilseus)

            ", it is sometimes possible to retrieve information from a hard disc even if it has been later overwritten with zeroes, or even random bytes"

            True! I can guarantee ~50% of the bits can be recovered.

            1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
              Joke

              Re: Overwriting with zero's is, well, overwriting. (@ Wilseus)

              True! I can guarantee ~50% of the bits can be recovered.

              Pah! I can guarantee a 100% recovery of the bit so long as there's no physical damage. Just not necessarily in the correct order. (with thanks to Eric Morcombe)

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Well yes of course it will be recoverable

          "I quite like the stink this guy's kicked up, especially when you see the follow up story explaining that an 8th grader broke the window, and a member of staff accidentally formatted the drive by using a Linux install disc!"

          Indeed. Reading about his reaction, I'm kind of surprised he's actually stopped short of genocide and other crimes against humanity. Is this really the sort of bloke who stands for democracy and 'freedom' (haha) these days?

        3. beep54
          Devil

          Re: Well yes of course it will be recoverable

          Yep. Seems to be a bit of a non-story here. Grimm is just making shit up and/or trying to erase damaging material concerning the investigation about him.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Well yes of course it will be recoverable

        Hmmm .... dban a lot of disks that way do you? Know how long that would take with your average sized hard drive these days?

      3. handle

        @jptech

        Hopefully you'll read others' postings properly in future before you gleefully shoot yourself in both feet by accusing them of not knowing what they are talking about and by selecting the "FAIL" icon. It will save you immense embarrassment.

    2. Erwin Hofmann
      Linux

      Re: Well yes of course it will be recoverable

      ... hear, hear ... "Linux" is talking (lovable and annoying) ... but hey, how about the political aspect of this ... Hint: I always thought federal campaign offices where an attack on democracy as a whole ...

  2. Robert E A Harvey

    And would this not have happened if the culprits had installed Windows 7? or AmigaOS? or OS/2?

    1. hplasm
      Happy

      Or-

      iOS6!

      *gasp*

      1. Steve Evans

        Re: Or-

        Don't be silly.

        If they were iOS6 fans they would have never found the office.

  3. Alien Doctor 1.1

    The Repuglican was...

    probably worried about losing his collection of gay porn.

    1. Mint Sauce
      Angel

      Re: The Repuglican was...

      More likely worried about them discovering it when they recover data from the disks ;-)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Non-story

    There were two separate incidents. A child broke the window. A staff member "inadvertently" installed Linux.

    More here: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/09/rep_michael_gri_1.php.

    1. sabroni Silver badge

      Re: Non-story

      Party pooper! The thought of vigilante freetards was much funnier than your common sense explanation!

      I hope you're proud of yourself!

    2. ShadowedOne
      Big Brother

      Re: Non-story

      Well, so much for his 'I'm a victim of anti-democracy forces' wet-dream.

    3. My Alter Ego
    4. Tom 35

      Re: Non-story

      A staff member "inadvertently" installed Linux.

      I could maybe see it if it had been one computer (still a stretch), , but the reports say "computers". How can you do it to more then one computer if you are not trying to get rid of something.

      I wonder how much it costs to get an 8th grader to break a few windows...

      1. Steve Evans

        Re: Non-story

        "a "police source" tells the New York Daily News that it "appears that a campaign staffer wiped the hard drives accidentally after mistakenly inserting a Linux system disc into a Windows machine.""

        Accidentally inserted the disk, rebooted the machine, clicked OK, YES, Continue a dozen times each...

        Yes... a total accident.

    5. hplasm
      Happy

      Re: Non-story

      Linux on the Desktop!

      Yes it is- how did that get there?!?

    6. Andus McCoatover
      Windows

      Re: Non-story

      Er....At the link provided by a fellow commentard states:

      "appears that a campaign staffer wiped the hard drives accidentally after mistakenly inserting a Linux system disc into a Windows machine."

      Sorry, how the fuc*k can you do that without noticing??

      Go on, enlighten me. Even with someththing as simple as an Ubuntu/Mint install, you've 7 questions to answer, before the thing works its magic. Surely, the 'qualified' staffer (No-one would let an unqualified staffer do something as critical, unless the reinstallations instructions came from Chennai). But, it's an ill wind...Think they're better off leaving it be.

      1. Jason 24
        Go

        Re: Non-story

        Live boot disk? If I dropped one of those into all the machines at my place everyone would go nuts and I'd get an easy day "restoring" all the machines.

        Not a bad idea...

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. K
    Devil

    It's an attack against what we stand for, for free elections.

    Calm down dear.... its only a penguin!

    (Sponsored by eSure... LMFAO)

    1. Brutus
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: It's an attack against what we stand for, for free elections.

      Misread your title as free ELECTRONS! I'm totally behind free electrons ;-)

      1. Roger Kynaston
        Joke

        Re: It's an attack against what we stand for, for free elections.

        But then we would also have to allow free radicals.

  7. Thomas 4
    Unhappy

    If only Batman had been there.

    He'd have been able to stop the Penguin.

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: If only Batman had been there.

      Yes, but these are zombie penguins.

  8. waswasere

    Is it just me or is Mr Grimmmm's statement dangerously close to the "attack on America" speech in Animal House?

    1. This Side Up
      Mushroom

      It was obviously a terrorist attack so let's go and bomb some poorly defended Arab contry that doesn't have any WMD.

  9. Chris Walton
    Big Brother

    Interesting

    So reading from the villagevoice link above we can see that this politician has taken two unrelated and relatively minor incidents and spins it into some kind of terror attack on democracy and free speech.

    All in the name of making new laws to "keep us safe" of course.

    1. HMB

      Re: Interesting

      I doubt it, it will probably be so he gets attention without sounding like he's whining about his own problems. When you fart in his direction, you fart in America's direction... blah blah...

      He's America you see.

      It's just crass political maneuvering. He has some nerve IMHO.

    2. Mephistro
      Coat

      Re: Interesting

      "some kind of terror attack on democracy and free speech"

      Oh shit... So when will the invasion of Finland start?

      1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Interesting

        @Mephistro "Oh shit... So when will the invasion of Finland start?"

        Sod the start. When will it Finnish?! (sorry)

      2. Anonymous Coward 15

        Re: Interesting

        Oh shit... So when will the invasion of Finland start?

        Don't invade Finland unless you're a real glutton for punishment.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War

    3. Ole Juul
      Coat

      Re: Interesting

      All in the name of making new laws to "keep us safe" of course.

      It will be illegal to be in possession of a loose rock, or a Linux disk, for the purpose of breaking Windows. Get caught with both and they really throw the book at you.

  10. Valerion

    Forced Entry

    Since when does hurling concrete blocks through windows NOT constitute forced entry??!

    1. ZenCoder

      Non Event

      Forced Entry

      Since when does hurling concrete blocks through windows NOT constitute forced entry??!

      ---

      When the windows was accidentally broken by an 8th grader ... and a staff member accidentally inserted a Linux ... and no crime was actually committed.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Non Event

        Windows *is* broken, so that's why they installed Linux... And yes - ddrescue can be used to restore the old data and even that is not needed if - as I was reading they had backups...

        1. Tom 35

          as I was reading they had backups...

          But they might have... forgotten to back up a few things that are now sadly lost... at least they hope they are lost.

    2. Euripides Pants

      Re: Forced Entry

      "Since when does hurling concrete blocks through windows NOT constitute forced entry??!"

      When no entry occurs, then it's just vandalism.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Big Brother

        Re: Forced Entry

        Just vandalism?

        Clearly it would be an attack on America, Democracy, the Star-Spangled Banner, Freedom, Freedom Fries and the Founding Fathers. Possibly even on Jesus and Abraham Lincoln (after that nasty politicking business with "being against slavery" went through, natch)

    3. HeloIT
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Forced Entry

      When your own staffer does it to cover up for installing Linux on your server?

  11. Katie Saucey
    Joke

    not all that bad

    I guess it could have been worse, the culprits could have just dropped a bunch of apple gear off.

    1. Ian K
      Coat

      Re: the culprits could have just dropped a bunch of apple gear off

      Not if they'd been locating the office with Apple Maps.

    2. Andus McCoatover
      Windows

      Re: not all that bad

      Nah, Apple gear is in too short supply.

  12. William Boyle
    FAIL

    I think Grimm's tin foil hat has fallen off...

  13. Midnight

    It's an awful coincidence that this kind of completely random terrorist attack would just happen to occur in the office of someone who was being investigated by the FBI for soliciting illegal campaign donations. ( http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-07-19/news/32751285_1_grand-jury-yoshiyahu-yosef-pinto-law-enforcement )

    Gosh, I sure hope that there wasn't any important evidence on that computer. ( www.nypost.com/p/news/local/staten_island/grimm_hq_tale_is_fishy_cops_fDiC0MeCOpjgpH9IGEZ9BM )

  14. andreas koch
    Paris Hilton

    What is the

    [sic] about?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Re: What is the

      Indeed.

      The word appears to be appropriate and is spelled correctly.

      1. edge_e
        Headmaster

        Re: What is the

        The grammar is incorrect.

        You could say "Whoever did this, they are very ignorant and don't understand that this is not just an attack against me or my campaign"

        or

        "The people responsible are very ignorant and they don't understand that this is not just an attack against me or my campaign"

        The original is unnecessary repetition

        1. Goat Jam

          Re: What is the

          "The original is unnecessary repetition"

          Man, I use the pedantry icon regularly but that is a stretch, even for me.

          1. auburnman

            Re: What is the

            On the subject of pedantry, what does [sic] stand for? I know it's used when you're repeating a quote verbatim and want to point out the mistake isn't yours, but is it just shorthand for spelling is correct or is it a posh Latin term that coincidentally has the same first letters?

            1. cyberdemon Silver badge
              Holmes

              Re: What is the

              It is Latin for "Yes"

              1. edge_e
                Headmaster

                Re: What is the

                It is Latin for "Yes"

                No, it's the Latin verb thus.

                As noted, sic is an abbreviation in this context. The full phrase is sic erat scriptum, thus was it written.

          2. edge_e

            Re: What is the

            I felt bad as I typed it, but he did ask.

        2. Lusty
          Holmes

          Re: What is the

          "The original is unnecessary repetition"

          The original was probably a spokesperson in a press conference repeating for emphasis. This is perfectly ok use of language and we see it on TV all the time, especially from polititians.

          I suspect more likely it's a journalist who desperately wanted to include "[sic]" in a story and has been scouring the grammar of every quote for months.

          1. edge_e

            Re: What is the

            This is perfectly ok use of language and we see it on TV all the time

            Believe it or not, not everything you see on TV is correct.

          2. Magister
            Headmaster

            Re: What is the

            "This is perfectly ok use of language and we see it on TV all the time, especially from polititians [sic]"

            Do you mean "This use of language is perfectly OK as it is used on television and by politicians"?

            Because it is not correct, even it is on television.

            1. Lusty

              Re: What is the

              "Because it is not correct, even it is on television."

              So everything you say out loud has perfect grammar? In that case you must have trouble communicating with us normal people who speak the modern language.

              1. edge_e

                Re: What is the

                Lusty, you're right, languages evolve. I doubt that this would cause difficulty in our communication because the rate of change is quite slow. Shakespeare, for instance, is still understandable despite centuries of linguistic evolution.

                I'm off for a bag of popcorn now as others argue the pros and cons of this.

              2. Magister
                Headmaster

                Re: What is the

                My mistake on the missing IF statement <8-)

                My only excuse is that I am an old fart and I've lost my reading glasses; I am currently viewing this screen from about 8 inches away (20 centimetres in modern money!)

                No, not everything has to be perfect; in fact it's surprising how much people can understand even when English is not the first language or when the pronunciation is poor. Generally, you can understand the meaning of something if only 30% of the actual words can be heard / read.

                However, this does lead to some potential problems when meanings of words change - if I say that someone is sick, they are unwell. My niece who watches too much American television thinks that it means they are highly attractive (apparently)

                Lusty, wait until you have teenage children, who communicate only in monosyllabic grunts. Then you too will long for the days when people enunciated clearly, used words that hadn't changed their meaning in the last decade, and spoke in sentences that were composed in a way to clearly communicate the concepts.

                Jimmy Edwards because I grew up in the days when teachers did wear robes and mortar boards - and the pupils had a certain level of respect for them.

            2. edge_e
              Pint

              Re: What is the

              Because it is not correct, even it is on television.

              Do you mean "Because it is not correct, even if it is on television."

              I love the way arguments on the internet, that revolve around pedantry, tend to crawl up their own arse.

    2. JudeKay (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: What is the

      The SIC was inserted because of the speaker's use of the word "very" before the word "ignorant". The penguins either know nothing – and are ignorant – or know something, and are not ignorant. The inclusion of an adverb of degree was redundant...

      1. edge_e

        @JudeKay

        Ignorance, or lacking knowledge, is not absolute and therefor very ignorant is not, in my opinion, grammatically incorrect. Maybe I need to leave my popcorn for later :-)

  15. mark l 2 Silver badge

    Sounds like some well meaning but none technical person at the campaign office thinks he will stay behind late one night update the computers to Linux and chooses to format the drive rather than do a frugal install. Craps himself when he realised whats happened so breaks a window and blames it on vandals.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      More like... staffer gets in first in the morning and finds the windows smashed. Cue much "OMG, OMG, O...M...G!". Eventually calms down enough to search Google (on his iPhone, natch) for advice.

      Google search: My windows is[sic] broken

      I'm feeling lucky response: Install Linux

      Staffer: Okey, dokey

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @ac 23:37

        Sounds more like the standard response here, to be honest.

  16. Lamb0
    FAIL

    A Windows Dummy Did IT!

    From the Village Voice:

    "-- a "police source" tells the New York Daily News that it "appears that a campaign staffer wiped the hard drives accidentally after mistakenly inserting a Linux system disc into a Windows machine.""

    ... and since so many Windows users mousing around never see anything they don't want to click WITHOUT READING IT FIRST, the resultant panic is automatic. There could also be a problem if a Windows user faced a Keyboard/Cursor boot menu where Windows is not the default choice!

  17. cd

    Menace always needed...

    Linux, the new communism.

  18. Skyraker
    Thumb Up

    As japes go....

    .... splendid.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How ignorant

    Whatever they hoped to achieve will seem trivial when they are getting "slammed" in prison.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: How ignorant

      Do I hear a prison rape joke? Again?

  20. We're all in it together
    Meh

    Hold on a minute

    Linux solitaire is much better.

    Windows doesn't have Tux penguin racer.

    Perhaps he misses the virus updates.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Finally...

    ... the Year of Linux on Desktop!

  22. Nigel 11
    Black Helicopters

    Who stands to gain?

    Who stands to gain by mentioning that this act of vandalism involved use of a tool called Linux? (A detail that's about as relevant as someone's window being smashed using an Apple charger brick, rather than the more usual house-brick).

    Is Microsoft a large campaign donor by any chance?

  23. Shaun Hunter

    Violence?

    Through a rock through a window or any other inanimate object is not violence. If this guy doesn't know what violence is he doesn't deserve to run a hot dog stand let alone a country.

    1. Christian Berger

      Re: Violence?

      Exactly, at least according to German law, you can only commit violence against persons not things.

      In fact if it's done in a reversible way, it's not even what we call "Sachbeschädigung" (violation of things).

  24. We're all in it together
    Meh

    On reflection

    If I'd come back home and found that criminals had broken in and removed Fedora 17 and replaced it with either Windows or Apple I too would've been livid.

    Actually not livid - annoyed. Come to think of it - confused.

    Perhaps it was Steve Ballmer as the software was unlicensed?

    Unless of course the nasty crims installed Ubuntu with that evil unity interface thingy. No wonder he's annoyed.

    I really must stop thinking out loud on forums. Oh well back to adding places on my new mobile map app.

    1. Fatman

      Re: Unless of course the nasty crims installed Ubuntu with that evil unity interface thingy.

      I am using 12.04 here, and the first thing I did post install was:

      sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback

      and say goodbye to that clusterfuck called Unity

      1. We're all in it together
        Thumb Up

        Re: Unless of course the nasty crims installed Ubuntu with that evil unity interface thingy.

        It has a terminal?

    2. LaeMing
      Go

      Can't be Steve B.

      The windows were broken by rocks and concrete blocks, not flying chairs.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    The Last Few Sentences

    ..seem to be the most important of this whole thing.

    Let's see when they will have this guy for obstruction of justice. Shertainly all this was not done by his minions.

    After all, he must be a Law Abiding Facilitator Of Banksterism. We know all they do is 100% legal. No-one except that insignificant idiot Madoff went to jail. Plus, Elite Banksters are already using Linux. So Linux will not be put on the List Of Terror Contraband.

  26. banjomike
    WTF?

    absence of evidence of forced entry

    don't three broken windows count as forced entry? God. US police are as thick as their judges and lawyers.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: absence of evidence of forced entry

      Well, if there was no evidence of actual entry, is I think what they are hinting at, in other words they are trying very hard not to say he is a complete tool :P

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reminds me of when I was at University... The old joke was "Vandals broke in to the Queen Margret Union over the weekend and did $10,000 worth of improvements" :)

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Vandals don't install Linux on PCs

    "The NYPD had identified those responsible: A pair of 8th graders confessed to the vandalism. And it didn’t appear the teens were motivated by much more than your normal teenage debauchery". link

    '"a law enforcement official said on Monday night that police experts had examined the campaign's computer systems and concluded that nothing had been erased or tampered with" and that "there was no evidence that an intruder had been in the office'." link

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Vandals don't install Linux on PCs

      Mnnn more interesting all the time.

      Maybe the "Install" was live CD "boot to CD first" (or USB stick round the back).

      But then these "Images" the police mention, maybe someone failed to wipe it properly.

  29. HeloIT
    IT Angle

    Give Linux a chance

    It is really useful and easy, and what cretin would install Windows on a Linux box (wait a year and they can't ;)

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Expert

    "...Simon Steggles, a director of UK-based computer forensics and data recovery firm Disklabs, said that data would be recoverable "unless the data on the hard drive has been overwritten… in which case, it will be impossible to recover."..."

    File under "No shit, Sherlock!"

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hold them accountable

    Regardless of what ignorant motive was involved these criminals need to speed some quality time in the slammer.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Clever. Very clever

    Install Linux so he can't install any decent apps and do some work.

    Classic

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Disk Data Recovery

    "Unrecoverable" data can with considerable effort be recovered by treating each "bit" on the disk as an analogue value, rather than a one or a zero. The magnetic field strength is a function of the previous write history: two consecutive zeros will result in a different field strength than a one followed by a zero. With appropriate algorithms it is possible to recover data that has been overwritten with zeros, or even a predictable data pattern.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Disk Data Recovery

      SOME data can be recovered by the percentage varies dramatically and can typically be from 0-40%.

  34. Rampant Spaniel

    Free elections

    Unless you happen to be poor and\or a minority, then they try and make it as hard as possible to vote, change voting hours and days, change ID requirements, change early voting systems.

    If you have to resort to cheating to try and win an election, give up, certainly don't bleat about free elections.

  35. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Meh

    "Attack on democracy" -> 13YO breaks window + staffer installs Linux

    (probably because they are told to)

    Interesting how fast a politician can take a couple of *minor* mishaps and spin them to a personal attack.

    When the police get reports like that they tend to think the person is being paranoid.

    Which they *are* in this case.

    Of course if I were of a conspiratorial frame of mind I might think this would be a perfect opportunity to "loose" some files I'd prefer didn't fall into the "wrong" hands (like anyone investigating my campaign contributions for example).

    It would depend on how complete I made my backup.

  36. seansaysthis

    Mainstream Meida Take away is

    Linux is used by vandals. Linux users are Vandals and are some sort of anti democratic nut jobs and somehow anti American.

    1. cyberdemon Silver badge
      Linux

      Re: Mainstream Meida Take away is

      Nut jobs? No - commies! Far worse.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    On a shallower note...

    Grimm? A republican? Is this April 1st?

  38. drewsup

    guilt depends on the distro..

    If they loaded a Debian release, a pat on the back may be in order,

    However... if any version of Slackware was used, STRING THEM UP!

  39. frothing
    Trollface

    Thrashing

    "That data deserved to be thrashed to within an inch of its life."

    Oh no - wait - it's the wrong word isn't it.

  40. Great Bu

    The whole thing stinks of a massive cover-up....

    A federal campaign office where they have proper backup procedures and they keep their staff personal details in an off-site secure storage ?

    It must be the only one in the whole country that so suspiciously well organised.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All of these comments......

    .....and nobody has yet made the obligatory "you can't install Linux - Linux is only the kernel - you have to install a Linux based OS" comment yet; give yourselves a pat on the back folks!

  42. adam payne
    Joke

    Will Batman be able to save Windows or will the Penguin be able to achieve total desktop domination.

    Find out tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel.

  43. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hold the perps accountable

    B&E should put them in prison for awhile.

  44. mhenriday
    Linux

    I told you

    that it was GNU/Linux's year on the desktop ! With a poster boy like Michael Gerard Grimm (ex-FBI, ex US Marines, to boot - pardon the pun !) how can we Linux-aficianados lose ?...

    Henri

  45. T J
    Linux

    A New Era

    I for one, welcome our new Linux Installing Overlords.

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