Welcome...
I'm a Seattle-based freelance writer/journalist originally from Fort Worth, Texas. I'm also a substitute teacher in public education. I write about anything and everything, but usually philosophy tied to current events, science fiction and fantasy, investigative journalism, liberatory mental health, technology, justice ... the list goes on.
So far in journalism, I'm probably most known for three things. First, reporting on multiple federal defendants associated with the hacktivism/transparency movement. Their trials, what they revealed, their ideals. Second, turning emails hacked out of a private spy firm, Stratfor, into standalone stories. These articles centered on the memos themselves, not the hackers' hair-dos or hoodies. Third, I was an expert on said private spy files in the documentary film The Hacker Wars, which on rare occasion somebody recognizes me from, amusingly. However, in the end, many of the most valuable things I've ever written are simply sitting on my social media feeds and blog where autodidacts can read them, stroking their chins intellectually.
Aside from those labors and ongoing ones, content marketing pays some of my bills, so if you want me to write for you in that capacity — or some other — email me and let's talk.
News
July 5, 2023: The BradBlog.com, run for two decades and counting by Brad Friedman of the nationally syndicated AM/FM radio show the BradCast, published my investigative article entitled Exclusive: Georgia Secretary of State has failed to certify urgent, CISA-recommended voting software update; critics charge state laws block him from doing so, even if he wanted to. In short, Brad Raffensperger's office has not contracted with a certification agent to get a state-level examination done for Dominion Democracy Suite 5.17. Other evidence corroborates that, without a state certifying agent and possibly even with one, Raffensperger legally cannot move forward on upgrading to this latest version. According to University of Michigan computer science professor J. Alex Halderman -- whose report on the matter was unsealed by a federal judge last month -- 5.17 purportedly addresses the flaws he'd uncovered in version 5.5-A. That older 5.5-A version is presumably what we'd find in place if we took out the voting computers presently stored in Georgia warehouses and closets and booted them up. It's the same defective version currently set for use on Election Day 2024, since Raffensperger says he won't update till at least 2025. Given the Coffee County breach (see below two items) and Halderman's unsealed report, the code of 5.5-A and its cybersecurity vulnerabilities are likely widespread among the shadows by now, putting a November 2024 bullseye on the swing state's election system unless the Peach State switches to, say, hand-marked paper ballots tabulated by scanners doublechecked through quality risk-limiting audits.
June 21, 2023: To accompany my article linked directly below, I was interviewed this day on the BradCast, a nationally syndicated Pacifica Radio AM/FM show called the BradCast. Here's the landing page for that particular radio episode, with links to various services carrying the show such as Apple Podcasts. The full show as a 58-minute MP3 may be downloaded directly here.
June 21, 2023: The BradBlog.com published my new in-depth investigative article A secret meeting within a secret meeting: Unspooling the Coffee County, Georgia voting system breach and continuing cover-up, subtitled Cracks emerge in wall of secrecy surrounding mysterious County meeting in small town conspiracy with national implications... In short, top Trumpers have been directing a multistate scheme with his knowledge, including in the battleground state of Georgia, to breach county elections offices and make off with copies of the voting systems software, presumably for hacks, rigs, and/or for sprinkling into their disinfo campaigns for enhanced pseudo-plausibility. Meanwhile, the Georgia elections chief Raffensperger recently told a federal judge his office will not apply Homeland Security CISA-recommended security patches related to the breach until after the 2024 general elections. Unfortunately for the conspirators, Georgia open meetings law mandates that Coffee County officials must provide transparency about a secretive February 2021 post-breach gathering of two county boards supposedly revolving around the resignation of the then-election supervisor and not the intrusions, then still a secret, that concluded not a month prior...
March 30, 2023: The Texas Observer published my new article, The voting vendor in Reality Winner's leak is coming to Texas. It's the first in a series on the theme of whistleblower Reality Winner. I interviewed a county information security officer, local elections administrators, and others about voting technology supplier VR Systems fairly recently gaining certifications to enter the Texas market — but I asked about this in the context of the 2016 Kremlin cyberattacks Winner disclosed. I also discuss polarization and historical context around various evidence, and various lack of evidence, for election meddling in the United States.
October 27, 2021: I spoke at the University of Washington hacker club Batman's Kitchen. The topic was, more or less, intellectual history for hacktivists. It was an in-person talk simultaneously available virtually over Zoom. The .MP4 Zoom audiovideo file is just under two hours and fifteen minutes long, with Q&A starting at 1:48:12. Here's the powerpoint. The video is also available on my youtube channel. See my related blog post for more information.
Contact
Email: DAL@RISEUP.NET (ask for pgp key or check keyservers if you want encryption)
Snailmail: Douglas Lucas / PO Box 75656 / Seattle WA 98175 / United States
Twitter: @DouglasLucas
Instagram: @DouglasLucas