• September 4

Who Launched The Web Hit On Barrett?

There’s always someone smarter than you.

I learned that the hard way a couple years ago when I was busted wide open after launching a website attacking a presidential candidate. I also learned that there is no such thing as real anonymity on the Internet. If someone wants to find out who did something and they have the time and resources to commit, the high chances are that they will find out.

Now, I’m not claiming to be the one who is always smarter than you. I give that honor to the real tech geeks – the developers.

Yesterday when reading fitsnews.com I stumbled across the newest attack on Congressman Gresham Barrett, a web video tied to the website www.bailoutbarrett.com. My investigative side got the best of me and after the Gamecocks ugly win last night, I spent hours on the computer trying to figure out who was behind the hit. I started seeing some cookie crumbs left by the culprit. I saw that the source coding on all the sites were nearly identical. Obviously the same person coded them all. But still, I couldn’t quite figure it out and I became frustrated. That’s when I called up the developers.

This morning I woke up to an email from one of the developers who found specific coding links between the site’s hosting and those of twolanternmedia.com, rexrice.com, palmettoscoop.com, and scclubforgrowth.com.

All of those sites link back to one web development team – Two Lantern Media. Led by young political operative Harrison Brant, Two Lantern Media is responsible for the Internet strategy of South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley.

Brant went through a lot of pain to make himself anonymous, obviously scared that he’ll lose a few clients if he was caught. In their first video, the Two Lantern team even states “I wanted to give everyone my opinion of next year’s gubernatorial race in South Carolina, but let’s just say that my job might not be too safe if I were to do so publicly.”

After sending notice to Brant of my discovery, www.bailoutbarrett.com was taken down immediately. Brant sent word back to me that it was done “by a rogue coder.”

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Wesley

Wesley Donehue is a Republican political consultant, tech enthusiast, and coffee addict. Called "the political high tech 'Wizard of Oz'" by WSPA's Amy Wood, Wesley blogs about the intersection of politics, technology, and business.