Contractual Obligation Tin-Foil Hat Post

I was sitting around browsing web sites (Atrios has a link to this set of pictures and an article) and idly listening to C-Span (some symposium on the upcoming election--party-types talking shop) and I began to think: if I was evil like Karl Rove, how would I try to smear my opponent?...

Hmmn: what about hacking into someone's computer and planting embarrassing material on the hard drive? And then I realized--shit, that could be easier than I thought.

Well, not for me. I really only scratch the surface of that stuff. But, here's a possible blueprint--to the best of my understanding--of how such a thing could be done.

First, forget about trying to do this to either Kerry or Bush themselves: Bush already stopped using his Macintosh sometime in 2000, and not just for lack of skill. Legal considerations alone are enough for a candidate to NOT TOUCH a computer for the duration of a political campaign or during a term of office. I'll assume for the moment that Kerry likewise has limited or cut out any computer usage.

But, you've got the political and/or office underlings who almost live off the internet. And I wonder how many of them have even a basic understanding of how open an internet-connected computer is...

Hijacking email would be one thing--but, if you ask me, that'd take too much time and effort.

I'd try to plant a cookie--of questionable taste of some sort--on an unsuspecting staffer's machine. Then rely on some idiot journalist you've got in your pocket to ask a pointed question at just the right moment.

Again, I'm not the person who could actually do this, but it seems like a hacker of moderate skill could figure out how to modify a cookie from almost ANY server to include almost anything, and then push said cookie down to any number of computers. Without solid security on many levels--and I doubt folks who carry around laptops with a wireless connection have solid security--I'm pretty sure this could be easy to do.

If anyone out there wants to confirm or deny, please enlighten me. Also, if there are any other scenarios, I'd be happy to learn about them as well.

But only for purposes of general information. I have no more than a passing interest in this--every once in a while, as noted above, I try to think as the enemy would. And this seems like it would be right up Karl Rove's alley, except for the fact that Rove himself probably is out of the loop in terms of computer knowledge. I'll bet, though, that he's got a few pasty faced folks on the payroll who've eaten their fair share of cold pizza washed down with Jolt Cola.

I don't want to be surprised if/when they try something like this.