Official I got Tickets thread

[John Cocktoston]

Originally Posted by BigRapidsJackass

I'm basing this on LACK of any follow-up information.

Really, if you are "Paciolan" or whatever it's called, wouldn't you want to identify the source of the "malicious attack" to prove to the public (and mostly to your clients) that this fiasco was not the result of your own incompetence? The lack of any such information can only mean one thing: there is no evidence of a "malicious attack."

I have no doubt that you will find a way to dismiss this, but here's your update. Is the FBI now in on the cover-up along with the Rockies, MLB, MLBAM and Paciollan?

ESPN - FBI investigates 'attack' on Rockies ticket system - MLB

[BigRapidsJackass]

John, I hate to break the news to you, but:

1. There is no Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
2. There is no Santa Claus.
3. Charlie Monfort is wrong: if the Rockies play 10 games against the Red Sox, they will not win 6 of them most of the time.

and ...

4. THERE WAS NO "EXTERNAL MALICIOUS ATTACK."

John, PR people lie to you all the time. You just have to know how to read between the lines. When someone who was caught screwing up big time issues a press release that blames unknown bad guys, your b.s. monitor should be beeping like a Geiger counter at Rocky Flats.

So let me guide you innocent things who believe everything you read ("Hey, it was on the internet, wasn't it? It must be true!) down the sad cynic's road of truth:

The Story Behind the Press Release on the "Malicious External Attack:"

Rocky Mountain News - Denver and Colorado's reliable source for breaking news, sports and entertainment: Local

Ticket brokers' automated software, suspected of causing the online system to crash, shouldn't be classified as malicious, said Chris Benham, vice president of corporate marketing at Webroot Software Inc., a Boulder company that sells a popular anti-spyware program.

"By our definition, malicious is the intent to prevent a site from being functional, not the intent to get an upper hand (in buying tickets)," Benham said.

So how do I know that some anti-spyware program marketing guy is right? Well, because MLB confirmed that the "investigation" centers on ticket-buying bots and not on a denial of service attack:

Major League Baseball officials have acknowledged that the Rockies were referring to brokers with ticket-grabbing automated software, not hackers, when they called the attack malicious.

And the real story is buried deep within the article:

Several technology experts say the system may have crashed because it was too poorly designed to handle the flood of buyers, especially the brokers.

Our own Dan Fox (I don't know him, but I read his stuff and I know he's a very knowledgeable tech guy) knew what really happened right away:

Dan Agonistes

I think it's pretty clear that the company that runs the system simply wasn't prepared for the load and then tried to shift blame by claiming a malicious denial of service attack. Their tentativeness in saying that they could have been a target of such an attack smells funny and the fact that all they apparently changed was upping the wait time from 60 to 120 seconds indicates that they were trying to lighten the load. I hope the Rockies and MLB aren't buying the excuses. It's also clear that after looking at the HTML code they used to put up a timer, a program could easily have been written (and I'm sure was by ticket brokers as evidenced by the thousands upon thousands of tickets that now grace StubHub and EBay) to "force your way in line" and therefore have a better chance of acquiring seats.

So yes, the Rockies did refer the matter to the FBI and the Colorado Attorney General's Office. Which simply makes things worse, since they are obviously wasting the time of law enforcement agencies as they continue to try to cover up their own bungling of the matter.

I would imagine that the Rockies have in-house and outside legal counsel. I am a lawyer, and I can assure you that absolutely nothing here (taking the MLB official's comments, above, at face value) would support a finding of "malice" or that there was an "attack." Lots of would-be ticket purchasers and would-be resellers used every legal means possible to try to up their chances of getting through the system on October 22 at 10:00. There was no crime here. Period. There was never any factual or legal basis for styling this a "malicious external attack." That was pure spin, more commonly known as "a lie."

[Dante Bichette]

First of all, I agree that there was no "malicious attack." Software programs that try to get as many tickets as possible should be expected.

However, whether there was an attack or not is not the point. The bottom line is that the Rockies organization was ill prepared to sell world series tickets and chose to implement a plan that alienated their local fans. This is a fact that is not even debatable. One way or the other, the fault lies directly on the Rockies organization.

[BigRapidsJackass]

You're right. That is the point. And a stand-up organization would take the blame for being unprepared (and that includes not passing off the blame to the contractor, since, after all, they chose the contractor) instead of trying to blame some shadowy "malicious attackers" who ruined their otherwise-perfect plans.

[Roxpert]

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is precisely why JC believed the right-wing spin about Al Gore being a hypocrite and fraud. (sorry, couldn't resist.)

In truth, John has a point and Jackass has a point. None of us are in full possession of the truth, and to suggest that we know what may or may not have caused the crash of the servers may be at least a bit delusional. Jackass makes a lot of sense that this may have been true spin or "damage control" in blaming outside forces when it was their own screwup and failure to anticipate the brokers jamming the computers. JC may also be right that there's more to the story than simply ass-covering. No one knows, but I highly doubt that the FBI would have an open case file on this if there wasn't at least some reason to believe that illegal activity took place. The government law enforcement agencies aren't in the habit of providing "cover" for the incompetence of high profile private businesses.

Interesting situation to follow, though, and let's hope we have to deal with a ticket-buying crunch again next year!

[John Cocktoston]

[indianadrew]

Originally Posted by John Cocktoston

is that a menorah pin? i was unaware hillary was jewish.

[GerryInCS]

Not it's pin for the Psi Corps from the Babylon 5 TV show. Trust me, it is not a good thing. The Psi Corps are the equivalent of the CIA with Psychic/Telepathic powers and they have thier own agenda.

[indianadrew]

are they anything like the illumanati?

[GerryInCS]

Not that I remember, but it has been a while since I watched Babylon.

[indianadrew]

Originally Posted by GerryInCS

The Psi Corps are the equivalent of the CIA with Psychic/Telepathic powers and they have thier own agenda.

no wonder she is wearing it. she has her own agenda too.

[TheIncredibleRox]

I only got bits and pieces, but it seems like she took a thrashing in the most recent debate.

[Roxpert]

Originally Posted by TheIncredibleRox

I only got bits and pieces, but it seems like she took a thrashing in the most recent debate.

She surely did. Something about "doublespeak". Of course, the strategy now will be for her competitors to gang up on her, and I think they landed a few blows. In particular, I think Biden, Dodd, and Edwards raised their stocks, while Obama didn't do a lot for his.

[John Cocktoston]

I guess Bob Bowman of MLBAM and David Butler of Paciolan are drinking the Kool-Aid too, since they seem to be buying this "attack" that Jay Alves schemed up in his basement. The Feds that are investigating it must like the taste too...


The Denver Post - Shopping for Rox tix fix

[BigRapidsJackass]

JC, did you actually read the story?

Because if you did, you no doubt would have noticed the continuing lack of absolutely any evidence that there was something "malicious" going on:

Paciolan's Butler said the second type of attack hit the purchasing system at the same time on Tuesday - 32,919,988 times.

"They were purely attempting to flood the site to bring it down," he said. "We're prepared for denial-of-service attacks, but we had never seen ... this variant."

However, computer-security experts say that while denial-of-service attacks of this scale do happen, the hackers' motives usually involve financial gain - which doesn't seem to be the case here.

"It sounds like the first two could have been really aggressive ticket-buying programs," said Johannes Ullrich, chief researcher for the SANS Institute, a group that trains network-security administrators and runs the Internet Storm Center that monitors new security threats.

"If you have millions of automated attempts, they end up blocking each other from sending information through," he said. "The denial of service is a side effect of these gold-rush moments."

Again, absolutely no evidence of any "malice" in this attack. As Occam's Razor instructs us, when there is more than one possible explanation of a phenomenon, the simplest is preferred. Paciolan's explanation: unidentified but presumed "malicious" hackers organized a denial of service attack for no apparent reason, with non one taking credit for it later on. The alternative explanation of tech experts (see above, and the quotes from Dan Fox earlier in the thread): ticket-buying bots flooded the system, trying to gain any possible advantage in order to purchase an item that could be immediately resold at an approximately 400% markup.

But just try talking sense to a rabid conspiracy theorist ...