West Hollywood, California (Monday, August 11, 2008) – (Updated at 2:20 pm, August 11 to reflect more accurate fundraising totals.)Former West Hollywood Council member/mayor and Assembly member Paul Koretz, now running for Los Angeles City Council, reported to WeHo News that his campaign’s web site had been attacked and disabled by hackers.
Former West Hollywood Council member/mayor and Assembly member Paul Koretz. Photo By WeHo News - West Hollywood’s ONLY Newspaper, ONLY ONLINE! |
“They destroyed the web site,” he said, “and we want to make people aware that we are investigating and prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law."
The attack, which occurred on August 3, disabled his site and damaged several others on the webmaster’s server.
“There was ancillary damage done to other politicians' web sites, and since several of those are also Jewish, we thought that anti-Semitism might have played a part,” he said.
Mr. Koretz’s webmaster. WebPolitechs.com , serves politicians from across the country.
He explained that the attack was “very sophisticated, because there were features that, when you fixed a line of code, came back again after a few hours to mess it up again.
Former West Hollywood Council member/mayor and Assembly member Paul Koretz. Photo By WeHo News - West Hollywood’s ONLY Newspaper, ONLY ONLINE! |
“There are thousands and thousands of lines of code to go through,” he said, “so it’ll take some time to put back in order.”
Mr. Koretz is the acknowledged front-runner in the March 2009 election for the 5th District council seat being vacated by Jack Weiss, who is running for City Attorney.
His opponents in the race include Neighborhood Council leader Ron Galperin, who leads the field with $112,000 gathered, business person Robyn Ritter-Simon, who is second in the fundraising field with $111,000 in the last reporting period.
Third in line is David Vahedi with $107,000, and in fourth place fundraiser Adeena Bleich with $105,000.
Former Assembly member Paul Koretz trailed her with $72,310 raised so far for this campaign.
Former West Hollywood Council member/mayor and Assembly member Paul Koretz. Photo By WeHo News - West Hollywood’s ONLY Newspaper, ONLY ONLINE! |
Mr. Koretz said that his web site was, more than a fundraising tool, a chance for voters to become educated on his positions and supporters, listing a long list of endorsements from around the city, county and state.
“We filed a report with the FBI,” he said, “and a complaint with the LA City Ethics Commission.
“It’s hard to guess who might have done this,” he said, “but it could have been one of my opponents’ supporters doing what they thought was the best thing to help their candidate.”
Mr. Koretz said that, if that was the case, “It was a technically sophisticated act, but hardly politically sophisticated.”
Or worse, he noted, “If someone paid someone to do this, they might be capable of other nasty tricks.”
Printer-friendly
E-mail to friend
