The blog Lauda Finem is claiming political activist Ben Rachinger has been arrested by the police for hacking.

Sometime ago the Whaleoil Blog ran some vidoes of Rachinger speaking his political views. I wondered at the time why this was done, as Rachinger was no one of any import, and really had nothing special to say in the videos. So why were those videos given space and prominence?

From the Lauda Finem story, it is unclear who or what was hacked or even if Rachinger did anything at all. Or even that the police have arrested Rachinger. Lauda Finem suggests he has connections with Standard people. I thought he was a member of the Young Nats but his politics are so confusing I don’t really know what he is. Apparently there is an email trail in the story that involves David Farrar at some stage. This would suggest a connection with National.

A post on Reddit alleges that on Twitter Rachinger claimed that Cameron Slater agreed to pay him $5000 to hack the Standard blog. Rachinger posted on Twitter a graphic of a text conversation he claims is between himself and Slater where the fee is discussed. (see below) However the actual task is not clearly identified as a hack.

I can only guess that Rachinger has some kind of technical expertise whereby he gets involved in website design, and this brought him into contact with the Standard and with Whaleoil. From there it gets murky, but one thing that does seems pretty clear is that Rachinger is alleging Whale agreed to hire him to hack the Standard and to pay him a fee of $5000 to do so.

Rachinger appears to have a somewhat erratic personality, and Cameron Slater is not a complete fool. No one with the ability to think clearly would imagine it a good idea to get involved with Rachinger in anything involving subterfuge. I would be surprised if the allegation Slater hired Rachinger to hack has any substance to it.

The graphic below could relate to any kind of business transaction, and there is only Rachinger’s claim that it involves a hacking assignment.

Normally I wouldn’t give the tale much credence, but if Lauda Finem’s story on Rachinger’s arrest is true, it brings some stronger meaning to the story. However the alleged arrest could quite easily relate to some other hacking event, or maybe not even a hacking event at all.

One wonders why Slater hasn’t said more in relation to this event. He’s silent too on the delay in the start up of his new media venture Freed.

Whale Oil Hack – Dirty politics, New Zealand Police arrest cyber activist with strong labour party connections

Reddit discussion.

Update: Since this story was published, Ben Rachinger has started blogging on this issue in a very lucid series of posts.