Software program Detective Debunked Mike Lindell’s Election Fraud Claims

Robert Zeidman, a software program detective who actually wrote the guide on searching for proof of wrongdoing in traces of pc code (The Software program IP Detective’s Handbook), was awarded US $5 million on 19 April by an arbitration panel for profitable the “Show Mike Incorrect” problem. That’s, he debunked a declare made by MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who insisted that he had knowledge documenting Chinese language interference within the 2020 election. Lindell introduced the competition throughout a 2021 so-called cyber symposium in South Dakota. He handed 11 recordsdata over to contestants, together with binary recordsdata, textual content recordsdata, and a spreadsheet, and provided the money prize to anybody who may show that the info wasn’t associated to the 2020 election.

Zeidman shortly did so, documenting his evaluation in a 15-page report that concluded “the info Lindell gives, and represents displays data from the November 2020 election, unequivocally doesn’t include packet knowledge of any sort and don’t include any data associated to the November 2020 election.” Zeidman detailed the steps he had taken to investigate the info, ruling out an election connection.

“I’m a digital detective. I can determine who stole what from whom.”
—Robert Zeidman

Coming to this conclusion this apparently wasn’t all that arduous. A few of the knowledge, Zeidman just lately instructed the Las Vegas Evaluation-Journal, regarded like somebody had merely typed random numbers; one other knowledge set had been created simply days earlier than the competition, not earlier than the 2020 election, fairly apparent provided that creation dates on the recordsdata had not been altered.

Lindell rejected Zeidman’s try to say the prize.

Zeidman, per the competition guidelines, took the matter to arbitration, and on Wednesday the arbitration panel discovered for Zeidman. In its 23-page report, made out there by The Washington Submit, the panel identified that Zeidman stated he entered the competition not anticipating to win—believing that any knowledge provided needed to have been strictly vetted—however so as to see historical past within the making. The info had, the report indicated, been despatched to a so-called “Crimson Staff” for vetting, however, in response to the panel’s report, “not one of the Crimson Staff cyber specialists have been capable of open the recordsdata.”

An IEEE Senior Member, Zeidman has lengthy been concerned in software program forensics. He based an organization, Software program Engineering and Forensic Evaluation, to develop and market instruments for software program evaluation. He has served as an knowledgeable witness in additional than 100 instances involving disputes over code possession. And, for IEEE Spectrum, he wrote a couple of query lengthy speculated about in pc circles: Did Invoice Gates steal the guts of Microsoft DOS from Gary Kildall’s CP/M?

After he wrote that article, I sat down with him to search out how he approached this software program detective work. He instructed me, “I’m a digital detective, I can determine who stole what from whom.”

See the video beneath to see a little bit of what Zeidman instructed me about investigating the DOS case.