Security threats Toolkit
Story: Tsunami appeal site 'hacker' found guilty
Posted by: John Airey (Friday 14 October 2005, 6:23 PM)
Evil Wizard, what you say is true only if the server was misconfigured. RFC 3986 states that webservers should be able to handle this, and this is an accepted best practice document.
Also, folks, trying a car or a house door isn't an offence either. Do it a lot and it's suspicious and neighbours would be entitled to call the police. Entering the house or "taking a vehicle without the owner's consent" (aka "twoking") is. Although the police have caught people before they've even driven off.
The only reason this conviction went through is because the judge took an overzealous view of section 1 of the Act. I read a comment elsewhere that equated mens rea with strict liability. That's not correct. Strict liability includes things like "drunk driving", since being incapacitated means that you aren't aware you're drunk.
The bottom line is there is no way that you can know in advance whether you are authorised to access any page on a web site before getting a response from the server. If you therefore truly believe Daniel Cuthbert to be guility you would be a hypocrite if you continued to access the world wide web.
Full Talkback thread
Story: Tsunami appeal site 'hacker' found guilty
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Wow. Getting responses from ports on a network com... richard -
if there is a building and the front door is... spacelab10000 -
No, it's like walking around trying everyone'... Anonymous
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"The only reason he did this is because he thought... Anonymous
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The first person talks about connecting on co... Evil Wizard
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As a programmer (not just another web surfer) I wo... Anonymous
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I'm sorry if we offended the programmer -- wh... Matt Loney
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He claims he was scared that the site was a phishi... Anonymous
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If you'd like to tell the judge what you think of... Anonymous
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Go to any security professional and they shou... Anonymous
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Read the UK law, did he attempt to penet... Anonymous -
I understand that what he did broke... Anonymous
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Going totally against the flow... John Airey
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Ok first off the analogy that... Evil Wizard
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Evil Wizard, what you say is t... John Airey -
John I dont believe in this ca... Evil Wizard
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Evil Wizard, if you can't beli... John Airey
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There is an obvious breach of the Computer Misuse... Alex Pinheiro
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Well if this is now a crime, then come get me righ... Anonymous
