Jailed for using a “nonstandard” browser?
Via DME: compare and contrast the following
reports, which both apparently relate to the same event:
[news.bbc.co.uk]
Tsunami fund ‘hacking’ is probed
An attempt to hack into the website of the Disasters and Emergency
Committee (DEC) that was set up after the Asian tsunami, is being
investigated.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Computer Crime Unit have
begun an inquiry after BT blocked the attempt on New Year’s Eve.
A 28-year-old man from east London was arrested and released on
bail in connection with alleged offences.
Police are examining computer equipment seized during a search.
The bailed man, who was arrested under the Computer Misuse Act at
an address in London’s Bishopsgate on Thursday, is due to return
to a police station in February.
A spokesman for the Met said the DEC website continued to be secure
and the systems in place meant the attempted breach was identified
and blocked very quickly.
The DEC, which estimates to raise £200m to help tsunami
victims, said it was alerted by BT staff.
Chief executive Brendan Gormley reassured the public that “every
penny” donated over the internet was safe and had reached the DEC.
…and…
[www.boingboing.net]
A Londonder made a tsnuami-relief donation using lynx — a text-based
browser used by the blind, Unix-users and others — on Sun’s Solaris
operating system. The site-operator decided that this “unusual” event
in the system log indicated a hack-attempt, and the police broke down
the donor’s door and arrested him. From a mailing list:
For donating to a Tsunami appeal using Lynx on Solaris 10. BT [British
Telecom] who run the donation management system misread an access log
and saw hmm thats a non standard browser not identifying it’s type and
it’s doing strange things. Trace that IP. Arrest that hacker.
Armed police, a van, a police cell and national news later the police
have gone in SWAT styley and arrested someone having their lunch.
Out on bail till next week and preparing to make a lot of very bad PR
for BT and the Police….
So just goes to show if you use anything other than Firefox or IE and
you rely on someone else to interogate access logs or IDS logs you too
could be sitting in a paper suit in a cell
If this is true - if the Police truly are undertaking that sort of
behaviour at the merest behest of Sys-Admins who evidently lack any
manner of clue - then both the Admins and the Police deserve to be
held to public account, and further it makes me deeply concerned about
the latest ideas coming out of the Home Office.
“You typed the word “IRA” into Google. You’re under arrest for terrorist offences.”
“That’s my name, “Ira” - Ira Berkowicz…”
