The Lower Hudson Journal News, a Gannett newspaper, caused controversy when it published a map of names and addresses of gun permit holders, and announced that it planned to do so again. The plan for further publication may be in doubt as a neighboring county just announced it was denying the Journal News access to its gun permit database.
In protest, bloggers posted the home addresses and telephone numbers of Journal News editors and staff. Also cirulating was the personal and family contact information for the Chairwoman of Gannett.
The Journal News has hired armed guards for its offices, according to Politico, because of threats.
This privacy war has just escalated dramatically, as a group of self-described “2nd Amendment supporters” claims it has downloaded and posted on the web what it describes as the “user” database of the Journal News.
Twitter users claim the list is being widely circulated. Although the links are easily available, I’m not including links to any of the websites containing the alleged database for the same reason I did not provide the personal information sent to me about Gannett’s Chairwoman.
At least two tweets (only one of which is imaged here) disclosing this development were copied to the Journal News account, @lohud:
One of the tweets (not imaged here) provided a link to a page with this message:
lohud.com was hacked by 2nd amendment supporters in response to the posting of sensitive gun owner information. This database contains user email, name, username, password, name, phone number and address of ~10,000 lohud.com users
Feel free to make maps of Lohud users with this data
A simple Google search also turned up a document dump at Pastebin:
Twice today I reached out to the Publisher and Editor of the Journal News, asking whether they were aware of this, whether they verified the information, what they were doing about it, and what their position was. This obviously is important because the users and subscribers of the Journal News website may not be aware that their personal information has been compromised.
Despite being told by a person in the newsroom that the Editor was checking her emails, I have heard nothing from the Journal News.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Paybacks are a bitch.
Yes they are.
One would think that the editors of that rag WOULD think twice before doing it again but noooo, they plan to publish even more info on gun permits.
Just the fact that a permit is required to “own” a handgun is an infringement of the Second Amendment.
Until they get a taste of their own medicine, the left will continue its insane tactics to a point of no return.
The GOP leadership doesn’t understand this.
Most warriors do, as do most people who have ever bloodied a bully’s nose.
Revenge is a dish best served cold. The Journal News is due for several servings.
It’s about time we start using Alinsky tactics on the liberals. They’ve had a free pass for way too long. Mocking them and using their same dirty tactics is the best way to shame them. It may not be nice, but I’m tired of being nice when you’re up against rabid Lefties.
Internet Gangs of NY.
Bring out the Extreme Stovepipe Hats & the comely dirty wenches . Geeks to pour out of their tenement basements into the light.
Battery Park agogo.
Ps- my favorite film . I have been waiting for a sequel.
Newt Gingrich has been the voice of sanity from past Republican leadership tonight on twitter.
The Journal News has hired armed guards for its offices, according to Politico, because of threats.
Will the Journal News be publishing the names and addresses of its newly-hired armed guards?
Funny you should mention that – Lee Ayoob, one of the principals in RGA Investigations (hired by the Journal News to protect their victim status) was put on their map.
I guess that means the Journal News thinks the people they hired are potentially dangerous and need to be exposed like sex offenders. That was the original justification for publishing the list of legal gun owners…..
Put another way: the Journal News is apparently unwilling to trust law enforcement and is seeking protection by hiring the very people they hate and believe are a menace to society. The irony is quite delicious.
The Journal News has hired armed guards for its offices…
Oh, the irony…
Indeed. But it is 100% certain that the irony escapes them.
Guns are for the ruling class, the rich, and corporations…
I kind of think they didn’t expect any blowback from it. They’ve had free rein for years.
lulz
Five bucks this was done by leftists to get the Second Amendment crowd accused of terrorism.
Maybe. But if that is the case I doubt it will work. After all, the Journal News started the Privacy War, and were planning to do it again when this happened.
What has really interested me with the Journal News story and Gergory’s potential legal troubles is the way the media has mostly ignored both of them. That indicates the holier-than-thou anti-gun Narrative is not developed the way the media has hoped. It also shows the power of independent news sources such as LI.
Probably the next announcement from the Journal News will be that the reporter, editor, and (local) publisher involved in this mess will be leaving to devote more time with their families.
It amazes me that Anti gun people are the fist ones to want to be protected by one. They know the truth about guns and self defense, they are really about controlling the people
It does seem ridiculously hypocritical, but there’s no inconsistency in their worldview because the reason they published the names and the reason that they now have armed security are the same. Namely, right wing gun owners are murderous psychopaths.
8 morons and counting, lol. why do you idiots read a law professor’s blog when there are ample mouth-breathers out there who blog in crayon?
Right, “Abe”…there’s absolutely NO inconsistency between the left’s insistence that armed guards do nothing to deter gun violence, and the left’s…HIRING of armed guards to deter gun violence…no inconsistency at all…Just keep telling yourself that, “Abe,” and maybe some day your head will explode…
It’s better to stay quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Abe Froman…King of the Idiotic Comeback Line! Way to go, Abie baby!
As a conservative, it makes me sad to see so many dimits who can’t read on a conservative blog, least of all one run by a smart guy like professor Jacobson.
That should read “dimwits.” My “w” key isn’t working and I forgot to paste one in.
Hm, they stored passwords as MD5 hashes. HelLO, rainbow tables.
Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight?
[…] get some! ANOTHER UPDATE: Apparently the battle for privacy has just escalated, according to the Legal Insurrection blog. …a group of self-described ”2nd Amendment supporters” claims it has downloaded […]
I’m debating sending an email to all of these nice folks and warning them that they need to change their passwords, if they reuse passwords from this site.
It would also be easy, using the data provided, to map all of the subscribers.
Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant is my hero.
heh heh heh
What many folks fail to realize, is the hack of their database is just as likely done by 2nd Amendment defending democrats as not.
Who does not realize this is a bi-partisan multi-racial bridging issue of the not going to take it gun owning crowd?
This is colossally stupid. The Journal News is a classic “local” paper. No one subscribes to it to follow national, international, business or even sports news, much less editorial opiniion. You buy this paper for the local supermarket ads and news about your local village budget or high school team. You should want subscribers on your side, encouraging them to communicate their opposition to the gun permit map. Why anyone would want to annoy them instead is beyond me. Dumb, dumb and dumb.
Their rules. We must play by those very same rules.
Why hire armed guards? Were any threats made against the individuals? Have the police been notified of threats? Are the police investigating? Will I have to buy a copy of their paper to find out?
The editor of the paper filed two reports with the police but they determined there was no actual threat.
Perhaps the real story here is how fast the local cops responded to a call about a potential threat by the local media versus how fast they may respond to a similar call about a threat to Joe or Jane Sixpack.
Every gun control controversy tends to highlight how gun control advocates tend to live in an upper class bubble in which both security and an instant response from law enforcement are taken for granted. This can be the case even when their own papers report about areas of their own cities the local cops hate to enter. They are like children in this regard. They lack both the imagination and the empathy to comprehend what it is like for those who live under conditions in which private security and the cops aren’t at one’s beck and call.
And yet David Gregory’s illegal 30 round magazine investigation isn’t going anywhere.
Libs do want full control though. Check out this N.Y. doofus:
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said only the federal government should have “high-capacity” gun magazines and that the “state ought to have a monopoly on legitimate violence.”
At a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday, Nadler gathered with other House Democrats to push for stricter gun control in the wake of last week’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2971352/posts
“The Journal News has hired armed guards for its offices, according to Politico, because of threats.”
Now wait just a damned minute. I thought we had been told by the LHJN and countless others of its ilk that the presence of firearms does nothing to prevent violence. In fact virtually all liberals commenting have summarily dismissed conservative claims that Sandy Hook and other shootings in governmentally-mandated “gun-free zones” could have been prevented by the simple precaution of the high-profile presence of an armed preventer.
Yet we have the LHJN putting into practice the very suggestion it finds so repugnant that it would deny it by force of law to tens of millions of average law-abiding Americans. How in the world can the LHJN square its immediate recourse to firerams-wielding security personnel? Aren’t police, highly trained and very safe with their firearms, mere minutes away from the paper’s offices? Why does the paper possibly need armed security personnel? Or has the LHJN played the journalistic equivalent of Monopoly’s Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free-Card: “We’re the media, and it doesn’t apply to us”?
In a bygone and infinitely more honor-driven age, an editor or even a paper’s owner caught out in such a humiliating and craven display of mendacity and special pleading as the LHJN has in using armed guards, would have had the simple decency to have immediately resigned and retreated from public life. But Alinsky put an end to honor in the left’s public life; and now it’s, “Just win, baby!”. How sad for America.
I do not like the fact that America has been reduced to playing by the left’s rules.
Once upon a time, this country was better than that. When it Chicago… trot out Monica Lewisnki.
In principle, I agree.
As a practical matter, we must recognize that we are dealing with bullies. Bullies are not restrained by shame, or decency, or reasoned discourse.
Bullies stop being obnoxious when they learn that continuing their behavior will not produce the desired results, but will instead result in their own tactics being used against them, even escalated. You see, they don’t enjoy being on the receiving end of these tactics any more than we do… but until we start giving them a taste of their own medicine, they have no reason to stop.
[…] Professor William Jacobson’s Legal Insurrection reports the Journal News, which recently published the names of every handgun permit holder in two New York Counties, has been hacked and its subscriber list taken. […]
[…] Corner: It’s Not Gridlock, It’s Collapse – Our Crisis Is Political, Not Economic Legal Insurrection: Group Claims To Have Hacked Subscriber Database Of NY Newspaper That Published G… Weasel Zippers: Assploding Irony – Journal News Hires Armed Security Guards After Publishing […]
[…] » Group claims hacked subscriber database of NY newspaper which published gun permit map – Le… […]
Those unintended consequences will get ya every time. Karma exists.
screw it, I’ll be posting it shortly myself.
done. I won’t post link as I think that would violate this site owners wishes but anyone thats read anything of mine will know my website.
The publisher, editors, and reporters have made themselves fair game. But the subscribers? Stealing and publishing their personal information (including passwords!) is just evil.
pst314: “Stealing and publishing their personal information (including passwords!) is just evil.”
You mean like publishing the personal information of law abiding gun owners in an on-line interactive map as if they were criminals evil? That kind of evil?
“The Journal News has hired armed guards for its offices, according to Politico, because of threats.”
One slight correction here, because of what they claimed were threats. The JN contacted the police about some of the negative e-mails and messages they had received, but the police found that none actually constituted actionable threats.
Hiring guards is a needless expense. All their employees should get firearms training and the necessary permits to protect themselves.
Owning a handgun and having a concealed carry permit requires the exercise of sound judgement. The management of that paper flunked the judgement test.
[…] supporting the efforts of the hackers who cracked the J-N’s subscriber database, and are publicizing private information about the individuals who subscribe to this […]
Gotta be some kind of publicity stunt. How can this backwater fishwrap have 10,000 subscribers in this day & age?
PDF of database (much easier to read), with names and addresses reading left to right arranged by town, here:
[link removed by administrator]
Per post, don’t post links to data.
[…] the latest in this saga of invasion of privacy tit for tat, a group of hackers have announced that they’ve broken into the Journal News’ subscriber database. The group is sending […]