I remember back in 2021 when Mike Lindell (the “My Pillow” guy) organized a “Cyber Symposium” (whatever that means). As part of this, he promised to provide unequivocal evidence that the 2020 US election was stolen. His so-called “proof” was a bunch of computer files that purported to contain data documenting Chinese interference in the 2020 election.
Lindell went further by issuing a “Prove Mike Wrong” challenge, saying he would pay $5 million to anyone who could prove the data he was proffering wasn’t related to the election.
Over the past couple of days, I’m sure that you, like me, have heard references to the fact that an arbitration panel has ordered Lindell to pay $5 million to a cyber expert who debunked his claims. This cyber supersleuth analyzed the data and wrote a 15-page report that concluded by saying: “The data Lindell provides, and represents reflects information from the November 2020 election, unequivocally does not contain packet data of any kind and does not contain any information related to the November 2020 election.”
To be honest, apart from feeling that Lindell had reaped what he had sown, I didn’t think much more about this until, while listening to the National Public Radio (NPR) on the way into work this morning, I heard an update on this story, which included a few words from the cyber expert in question, Bob Zeidman, who is President of Zeidman Consulting.
“O-M-G,” I thought, “I should have guessed!” I’ve known Bob for yonks. I’m not sure, but I think we first met when we both presented at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) India 2010. Along with a small cadre of other embedded systems experts like Duane Benson, Jacob Beningo, Adam Taylor, and Jonny Doin, Bob and your humble narrator (I pride myself on my humility) have found ourselves speaking at multiple events over the years. Once, at ESC London, Bob and I managed to break free of the conference crowd and take the time to attend a performance of The Mousetrap, which is the longest running play in London.
The thing is that Bob is the author of The Software IP Detective’s Handbook, which means he literally wrote the book on software and data forensic analysis. So, I think it’s fair to say that it was something of a bad day at Block Rock for Lindell when Bob attended the symposium and decided to take part in the presciently named “Prove Mike Wrong” challenge.
Will Lindell accept the ruling of the arbitration panel? According to the Associated Press, he’s less than enthused to do so, which means this will probably end up in court.
If you want to learn more about all of this, just perform a Google search on “Mike Lindell and Bob Zeidman.” In the meantime, you can feast your orbs on this video in which CNN’s Erin Burnett chats with Bob about the panel’s decision.
How about you? Do you have any thoughts you’d care to share about any of this? If so, you know what to do…
Good for Bob! When I first heard about his involvement in the “Prove Mike Wrong” contest, I had no doubt about the outcome.
In a strange way I feel sorry for Mike Lindell — I mean, if you are making claims about this sort of stuff but you don’t have (can’t find) the real-world data to back you up, surely in your heart-of-hearts there would be a niggling doubt that maybe, just maybe, you were backing the wrong horse.
I have the same strange feeling, Max.
The first time I saw Bob talking about this, I thought “poor thing”.
Then I watched with some concern when he became the news of the moment. We always fear for friends when they’re up against mighty foes, even when its mighty fools.
But it contributes to that warm feeling that maybe it’s not always lost, after all.
I doubt Bob will ever see the $5M, but I hope he does 🙂
Bob has his head firmly in the right place. When you are gifted with competence, nerdyness and a legal mind, peppered with boldness, you are a clear threat to bullshitters.
Of course this will drag long, but Bob is the guy to see it through.
One round for him!
“When you are gifted with competence, nerdyness and a legal mind, peppered with boldness…” But what do the rest of us do? LOL