@whaledump

Summary

Hacker RawShark, operating under the alias @whaledump, gained access to the email account of conservative blogger Cameron Slater and released a series of messages that purportedly showed a coordinated effort to discredit government officials. The leaked correspondence implicated New Zealand Justice Minister Judith Collins in discussions about undermining political opponents and led to her resignation after being confronted by Prime Minister John Key. Additional emails revealed that financier Mark Hotchin had paid Slater and fellow blogger Cathy Odgers to produce articles attacking the Serious Fraud Office director and the Financial Markets Authority, while RawShark described himself as a teenage hacktivist motivated to expose what he viewed as improper collusion between politics and business.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

A hacker operating under the alias RawShark and the Twitter handle @whaledump gained unauthorized access to the email account of conservative blogger Cameron Slater. The breach allowed the attacker to extract private communications that were subsequently disclosed to the public. According to the book *Dirty Politics*, the leaked material suggested that New Zealand Prime Minister John Key had facilitated the transfer of a Security Intelligence Service document to Slater, whose WhaleOil blog was alleged to serve as a government‑directed smear platform. The extracted emails also revealed that financier Mark Hotchin had paid Slater and fellow blogger Cathy Odgers to produce articles targeting Serious Fraud Office director Adam Feeley and the Financial Markets Authority, which were investigating Hotchin’s business interests.

Cathy Odgers later forwarded a set of her own emails to the media company Fairfax, owner of Stuff.NZ, in an effort to implicate then‑Justice Minister Judith Collins in the alleged scheme. Collins responded to the allegations by describing them as “extremely distressing and disappointing,” and she resigned from her position after being confronted by Prime Minister John Key. The disclosed correspondence included a purported message from Collins commenting on Labour’s 2011 election prospects, a reply from Slater about awaiting an Official Information Act response, and Collins’s remark about “all this open government thingy.” The article noted that this new information from RawShark could prompt a high‑level inquiry into the unusually swift OIA request that had delivered intelligence to Slater.

RawShark has maintained strict anonymity, refusing to reveal any personal details or aliases and stating only that he considers himself a teenage hacktivist. He claimed that his distinctive motivations would make him easy to catch if he ever slipped up. The leak triggered political fallout, prompted ministerial resignations, and raised the prospect of a formal government investigation into the handling of the OIA request and the alleged misuse of intelligence information.

Sources

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