Poll of the Day > Canadian Deathsquad raids childs room 'cuz used the internet [CB]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Also something about the government being dumb

https://boingboing.net/2018/04/16/scapegoating-children.html
---

That is unbelievably stupid. And, in general, one more reason why I don't trust governments to get anything right.
---

Yeah, 15 cops for one 19-year-old who downloaded some stuff he shouldn't have (that wasn't secured in any way). The government's in a bit of a damage control panic here, especially after the police wouldn't corroborate their claim that they'd kept the leak under wraps for a week to facilitate the investigation. That said, this:

Let's hope that Nova Scotia's law enforcement and prosecutors have the good sense to thank this young man for pointing out their reckless mishandling of the public's sensitive information

Is not at all reflective of what happened. The vulnerability was discovered by a government employee who accidentally mistyped the URL for a document and ended up accessing a different one. This kid entered the picture when they examined the server to see if anyone else had downloaded more documents than they should have and found that he'd downloaded ~7000 such files. He was not at all the one that brought the vulnerability to their attention.
---

adjl posted...

Is not at all reflective of what happened. The vulnerability was discovered by a government employee who accidentally mistyped the URL for a document and ended up accessing a different one. This kid entered the picture when they examined the server to see if anyone else had downloaded more documents than they should have and found that he'd downloaded ~7000 such files. He was not at all the one that brought the vulnerability to their attention.

While the artice's time-line is a little unclear, it sounds like he was arrested shortly after discovering the issue. Otherwise, that kind of omission seems par for the course for these kinds of shady, agenda-driven alt-news sites.
---

Nice propaganda.

He noticed that the URL for the response to his request ended with a long number, and by changing that number (by adding or subtracting from it), he could access other public documents published by the government in response to public requests.

That's how people downloaded porno in the 90's. Good job, Canadia.

Zeus posted...

adjl posted...

Is not at all reflective of what happened. The vulnerability was discovered by a government employee who accidentally mistyped the URL for a document and ended up accessing a different one. This kid entered the picture when they examined the server to see if anyone else had downloaded more documents than they should have and found that he'd downloaded ~7000 such files. He was not at all the one that brought the vulnerability to their attention.

While the artice's time-line is a little unclear, it sounds like he was arrested shortly after discovering the issue. Otherwise, that kind of omission seems par for the course for these kinds of shady, agenda-driven alt-news sites.

Being a local case, I've been following it as it developed, and this article really doesn't do a good job of explaining the full situation. Basically, an employee discovered it as outlined above, it didn't come to light immediately because the contractor that was responsible for the system is up for having their contract renewed soon, and then when it was found out, the government kept quiet about it for about a week and didn't notify the people whose information was compromised. They said that was a request from the police for the sake of the investigation, to which the police were like "lol no it wasn't," and then they subsequently had this ridiculous overkill of an arrest.

The charge is "unauthorized use of a computer," which is going to be pretty hard to secure a conviction for given that the files in question didn't require authorization to access. The premier's insisting that changing a URL still counts as stealing the files because they contain personal information, rather adamantly denying that his government was 100% responsible for this breach and that downloading publicly available files is perfectly legal.
---

This method is how I found the secret board "-1", Brilliant
---

Some kid near me sent a death threat to the Prime Minister back in the late '90s and they tracked him down. My dad and another guy went to the school in plainclothes, identified themselves, and just hauled him off to scare him straight. He was all apologetic and crying and they sent him back to class lol.
---

Zeus posted...

While the artice's time-line is a little unclear, it sounds like he was arrested shortly after discovering the issue. Otherwise, that kind of omission seems par for the course for these kinds of shady, agenda-driven alt-news sites.

Shit like this only exists on sites like those anyway. You'll never find it on an actual reliable news site.
---

adjl posted...

Being a local case, I've been following it as it developed, and this article really doesn't do a good job of explaining the full situation. Basically, an employee discovered it as outlined above, it didn't come to light immediately because the contractor that was responsible for the system is up for having their contract renewed soon, and then when it was found out, the government kept quiet about it for about a week and didn't notify the people whose information was compromised. They said that was a request from the police for the sake of the investigation, to which the police were like "lol no it wasn't," and then they subsequently had this ridiculous overkill of an arrest.

The charge is "unauthorized use of a computer," which is going to be pretty hard to secure a conviction for given that the files in question didn't require authorization to access. The premier's insisting that changing a URL still counts as stealing the files because they contain personal information, rather adamantly denying that his government was 100% responsible for this breach and that downloading publicly available files is perfectly legal.

That sounds ridiculous. Hopefully the kid doesn't bow to pressure and plead out. At any rate, how long was it between the time the kid discovered the files, the discovery that he had accessed those files, and his arrest? Or did the discovery of the access occur on the same day of the discovery of the oversight?

Revelation34 posted...

Zeus posted...

While the artice's time-line is a little unclear, it sounds like he was arrested shortly after discovering the issue. Otherwise, that kind of omission seems par for the course for these kinds of shady, agenda-driven alt-news sites.

Shit like this only exists on sites like those anyway. You'll never find it on an actual reliable news site.

Well, local news typically covers events like that. And, honestly, all that an advocacy site would need to do is link to the original story rather than doing a Duckbear-styled spin on it.
---