Web Development Live

Two months after their Web site was hacked, the organizers of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign are looking for a network security expert to help lock down their Web site.

“Obama for America is looking for a network security expert who wants to play a key role in a historic political campaign,” reads the ad, posted to the Barackobama.com Web site.

Successful candidates will join Obama’s Boston team and should expect to find a new job come November.

Obama’s Web site, built by Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes, has been the model of Web 2.0 campaigning, using social-networking techniques to raise funds and build a broad base of active, Internet-savvy supporters.

But security experts have long warned that powerful Web site features also open new avenues for attack.

With the Internet driving the majority of the campaign’s contributions, Web security is probably more important to Obama than it has been to any other presidential candidate. A Web outage could cost his campaign millions of dollars, and a widely publicized privacy breach could put the brakes on his most important source of cash.

In April, a programming error allowed a Hillary Clinton supporter to redirect part of Obama’s Web site to Clinton’s, but today’s Web attack techniques could lead to much more serious consequences.

“Attacks like SQL injection would be far more of a concern,” said Oliver Friedrichs, a director with Symantec Security Response who has written about computer security and the 2008 presidential election. “If I was able to get access to the database that houses their donor information, that would be very concerning.”

So-called SQL injection attacks take advantage of programming errors and allow attackers to get unauthorized access to parts of a Web site. They can be used to install malicious software or gain access to sensitive information.

Obama’s site isn’t the only one to suffer from Web security bugs. A similar flaw popped up in Mitt Romney’s site in January, and Hillary Clinton’s name was used in a spam campaign that delivered messages laced with malicious Trojan Horse software programs, Friedrichs said.

While Web defacements and denial of service attacks may be the most common security problems, a Web privacy breach could quickly become a major campaign issue, Poole said. “For a big office, things like the reputation of the candidate are really important,” he said.

McALLEN, Texas Once a migrant farm worker and now an important fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton, Alonzo Cantu won’t even take the microphone in his own home to introduce the politicians whose fundraisers he hosts.The South Texas businessman cultivates the image of a wallflower who has only his region’s future in mind while raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democrats, mostly Clinton.Cantu does it through his web of businesses that include a construction company, bank and hospital, which together make Cantu one of the wealthiest and most powerful political operatives in one of the nation’s poorest areas.Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, a Clinton supporter who got Cantu involved in national politics, calls him one of the nation’s rising Hispanic stars.Clinton has campaigned heavily in the Rio Grande Valley this month, trying to secure the Latino vote in the March 4 Democratic presidential primary. She has collected nearly $1 million here, and people who know Cantu say he and his business associates are responsible for much of it.”The people who work for him and under him pretty much know what he wants,” said Billy Leo, mayor of nearby La Joya and a friend of Cantu’s. “He knows how much business he gives them. This guy is not going to call just anybody for money.”Campaign finance records show supervisors from Cantu Construction, bankers from his Lone Star National Bank and contractors on Cantu projects such as the commercial plumber on the Doctors Hospital at Renaissance that he built, wrote checks to Clinton’s campaign.Eight of the top 10 political contributors in Cantu’s north McAllen zip code sit on the hospital’s board or are doctors there. They gave a combined $111,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last year.Through January, Clinton had raised more than $888,000 in the McAllen metropolitan area, compared to $7,450 for her rival Barack Obama, according to The Center for Responsive Politics.It’s not clear how much was solicited and collected - bundled - by Cantu. The Clinton campaign acknowledges only that Cantu is one of their “HillRaisers,” those who raise more than $100,000.Some attribute Clinton’s fundraising edge here to her long-standing ties - 35 years ago she worked to register Valley voters - but many credit Cantu. Clinton visited Cantu’s home in 1999 while she was exploring whether to run for the Senate in New York.Local attorney Charlie Ochoa, who helped coordinate that 1999 visit, said, “There are maybe 100, 150 individuals (nationally) who have raised the kind of money Alonzo Cantu has raised for her.”Cantu says he does it because “politicians listen to two things: money and votes.”For decades, state and federal government neglected the border communities along the Rio Grande. The Valley lagged in roads, health care and education.Cantu, 52, grew up as a migrant worker, picking fruit with his family. His father eventually settled the family and started building a house or two per year when Cantu was a teen. Once Cantu graduated from the University of Houston with a finance degree, he took over the business.Now overseeing real estate development, banking and health care businesses, he is well aware of that neglect.”In the past, South Texas has been ignored by Republicans because it is the blue part of the state, and Democrats have taken us for granted,” Cantu said in his office, a framed photo of him and Bill Clinton in tuxedos behind him.The first phase in changing that was raising enough money to get Washington’s attention; the second phase is voter registration, he said.”That’s the fastest way to change things in the Valley,” he said.Cantu works out of his construction company’s single-story building a mile from his home. With his fireplug build, open-necked shirts and frizzy gray hair, Cantu looks more like one of his construction workers than a slick political operative.But bundlers like Cantu get credit for collecting hundreds of smaller donations. “They’re going to be in the candidate’s Rolodex if they’re elected,” said Taylor Lincoln of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch, a watchdog group.Tom Haughey, executive director of the Hidalgo County Republican Party, said Cantu’s vision of a prosperous Rio Grande Valley includes his businesses prospering.”I don’t think it’s just because everyone is magnanimous,” said Haughey, who filed an unsuccessful Federal Election Commission complaint against Cantu in the 1990s. “I think people expect a return on investment.”Cantu’s not shy about acknowledging that: “We give money to those who tour the hospital.” He wants to persuade members of Congress of the benefits of doctor-owned hospitals, which some want to prohibit.Asked if Cantu has political aspirations of his own, Hinojosa, the congressman, laughed.”None whatsoever. The less he speaks the happier he is.”