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posted by Fnord666 on Monday April 23 2018, @10:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the available!=permitted dept.

A 19 year old teenager was charged with 'unauthorized use of a computer' after downloading over 7,000 records from the Nova Scotia Freedom-of-Information web portal. The teenager whose name has not been released, has been accused of stealing documents from the portal, with many of them being publicly accessible and redacted.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/teenager-charged-for-nova-scotia-freedom-of-information-web-portal-breach/

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday April 23 2018, @10:52AM (9 children)

    Thankfully, no US prosecutor would ever abuse the CFAA in such a way.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 23 2018, @11:07AM (3 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 23 2018, @11:07AM (#670676) Journal

      This really looks like a joke. Stuff's on public display, so the kid looks at the stuff. Then he's arrested for looking. Has Russia expanded their gulags to Canada now? Or, North Korea? I don't know if China is that bad . . .

      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday April 23 2018, @03:49PM (2 children)

        by tangomargarine (667) on Monday April 23 2018, @03:49PM (#670775)

        Depends whether you consider harvesting dissidents for organs [wikipedia.org] is bad.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @01:54AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @01:54AM (#670975)

          Do you mean harvesting the organs of convicted criminals? That's great!

          • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday April 24 2018, @03:44PM

            by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday April 24 2018, @03:44PM (#671193)

            I mean, they're basically convicted of practicing yoga. If you think that's a good excuse for a death sentence...

            --
            "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Monday April 23 2018, @11:14AM (4 children)

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday April 23 2018, @11:14AM (#670680) Homepage Journal

      There has to be some form of punishment. I’m pro-life, as everyone knows. But hackers have been getting into our energy grid, into our EMAIL, into our hospitals, into our elections, into our credit agencies. Devastating so much of our cyber infrastructure. People are dieing because of it. And many people are saying, let's give hackers the death penalty. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, should be executed for their crimes. They must serve as examples so that others will think long and hard before committing a crime or an act of violence. I am not looking to psychoanalyze them or understand them, I am looking to punish them. If the punishment is strong, the attacks on innocent people will stop. I watched a newscast trying to explain "the anger in these young men." I no longer want to understand their anger. I want them to understand our anger. I want them to be afraid. How can our great society tolerate the continued brutalization of its citizens by crazed misfits? Criminals must be told that their CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS!

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 23 2018, @11:16AM (1 child)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 23 2018, @11:16AM (#670681) Journal

        Except - this young knucklehead didn't really "hack" anything. He simply downloaded a bunch of stuff that was freely accessible. But, yeah, he's got to be punished.

        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by RS3 on Monday April 23 2018, @01:26PM

          by RS3 (6367) on Monday April 23 2018, @01:26PM (#670727)

          Yeah, I wish Congress would pass a law stating that _ANY_ URL / URI formed is fair game.

          And no, it is _not_ the same as taking a penny you found on the ground.

          It is the same as reading a newspaper you found laying on the ground, or taking a picture of said newspaper. No physical thing has been taken.

      • (Score: 2) by Virindi on Monday April 23 2018, @11:16AM (1 child)

        by Virindi (3484) on Monday April 23 2018, @11:16AM (#670682)

        You are really phoning it in these days with these posts. Big league. It is a disgrace, a disgrace.

        • (Score: 5, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Monday April 23 2018, @11:57AM

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday April 23 2018, @11:57AM (#670696) Homepage Journal

          Some folks use computer. Good for them. I use my phone for tweeting. As everybody knows. I'm very popular. And my tweets are popular. Except with a few haters & losers (fmr WH people). Believe me, you're not a loser. Enjoy!

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Virindi on Monday April 23 2018, @11:10AM (18 children)

    by Virindi (3484) on Monday April 23 2018, @11:10AM (#670677)

    From TFA:

    When he learned that he could just increment a document number in the url, he created a script to automatically do so and download the resulting document.

    You've got to be kidding. At what point does extreme incompetence on the part of the admin, nonexistent damages, and no intent to harm make a "crime" not a crime? This is like if you were walking down the sidewalk and saw a penny in someone's yard and picked it up, and the SWAT team jumped out from the bushes, slammed you to the ground, and charged you with a pile of crimes.

    Except, "on a computer".

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @11:23AM (8 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @11:23AM (#670684)

      Exactly. If you want to charge somebody, charge the agency in possession of the documents.

      POINTING A WEB BROWSER TO A URL IS NOT A FUCKING CRIME for crying out loud...

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @11:57AM (7 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @11:57AM (#670698)

        Crime is whatever law says is crime, or whatever judge (and jury) proclaim as crime. Whatever can be named or vaguely described, can be a crime.
        If capturing rainwater from your own roof on your own house on your own land can be a crime, this can, too.
        More similarly, if pointing your web browser to a video containing forbidden footage can be a crime, this isn't much different, technically, so it is only up to the arbiters of justice if it constitutes a crime.

        • (Score: 5, Informative) by physicsmajor on Monday April 23 2018, @02:36PM (5 children)

          by physicsmajor (1471) on Monday April 23 2018, @02:36PM (#670751)

          And yet, the law says unauthorized access. He made HTTP requests, which were authorized by the distant server and data was sent. A rather robust case can be made that, by the server's actions, his access was completely authorized.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @02:42PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @02:42PM (#670755)

            But that's what they've done with these laws! If a computer system is set up to authorize something that somebody later realizes shouldn't have been authorized, it's as if it were never authorized in the first place. The law essentially exempts administrators from responsibility for their work.

            Of course, good admins know that it's still their responsibility to make damned sure the shit is secured. Bad admins, we hear about those all the time.

            (A good admin is invisible, which kind of sucks for those of us who do admin-type stuff for a living, but that's life for ya. [Incidentally, the invisibility of good admins is one reason why we need to organize and collectively bargain with employers, but I can see that will never happen. Our field will become a minimum wage job for the boss' nephew--no more status than a burger-flipper, and the public has been well trained to accept shit quality when it comes to computers.])

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @08:34PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @08:34PM (#670872)

            I agree, sounds like he needed a better lawyer. Crowdfund defense if this happened in US, and sick ton of experts who would 1) Make this case and 2) Make the authorities looks like imbeciles the longer the case went on. I guarantee that #2 would lead to dismissal of charges faster than #1.

          • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday April 23 2018, @10:34PM (1 child)

            by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday April 23 2018, @10:34PM (#670911) Homepage
            That case can be made. In the US it has been made. It wasn't understood by the guy with the gavel. Bang to rights. Next!
            --
            Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
            • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday April 24 2018, @10:28AM

              by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday April 24 2018, @10:28AM (#671103) Homepage Journal

              Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process? We have so many hackers. In Canada, in England, in Russia, in many places. This one hasn't been convicted. I think he's guilty, but I'm not the judge.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @03:39PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @03:39PM (#670771)

          Modern laws are so fucked up that when paid enough money, a lawyer can find a law that says ANYTHING is illegal.

          It is illegal to breath. Everyone must cease and desist immediately.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by laserfusion on Monday April 23 2018, @12:52PM (1 child)

      by laserfusion (1450) on Monday April 23 2018, @12:52PM (#670713)

      He did something unusual, that average people don't do. That's already suspicious to the system.

      He probably also violated the site's terms of service, such as no automated or unintended access to the site.

      So why not make an example of him.

      But they allow Google to index their site probably. This is just different by guessing some URL-s, based on other ones. He's not even trying to interact with or affect the site's internal state in any way, just requesting some URL-s.

      What if someone had a malfunctioning browser, or a web crawler that accidentally changed some URL parameters,, it would have the same effect as what this guy did.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @03:34PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @03:34PM (#670767)

        What if someone had a malfunctioning browser, or a web crawler that accidentally changed some URL parameters,,

        Or what about simple typos? When re-typing a url like somelamesite.bla/crapapp/00058132 it is easy to wind up on something like somelamesite.bla/crapapp/00058123 that too often will show you something you were not supposed to see.

        To idiot lawmakers the "solution" would be to make keyboards illegal.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Arik on Monday April 23 2018, @01:24PM

      by Arik (4543) on Monday April 23 2018, @01:24PM (#670725) Journal
      That's right kids. You're not supposed to understand how any of this works and attempting to do so will result in demerits. Shut up and eat your spam.
      --
      If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @02:08PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @02:08PM (#670736)

      At what point does extreme incompetence on the part of the admin, nonexistent damages, and no intent to harm make a "crime" not a crime?

      You should know. Had it been a woman downloading those publicly available documents, she would have been untouchable, and instead we'd have a news article calling for that (presumably male) admin's head on a platter, to be replaced by a woman asap. The movement you've claimed to be a member of have long been calling for an end to due process for men accused of crimes. Now that the elites want to start World War 3, I think it's a bit too late to backpedal. Didn't you realize what the elites were really after by getting you to adopt the position that accusations are convictions and men who know how computers work are oppressors and incels and homosexuals and all that? I just hope everything you've done for the elites was worth it. Maybe it is? Who knows.

      • (Score: 2) by Virindi on Monday April 23 2018, @02:17PM (4 children)

        by Virindi (3484) on Monday April 23 2018, @02:17PM (#670740)

        What the hell are you talking about?

        • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @02:45PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @02:45PM (#670756)

          I think you know what I'm talking about. Elaboration would serve no purpose.

        • (Score: 3, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 23 2018, @03:28PM (2 children)

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 23 2018, @03:28PM (#670766) Journal

          He's ranting about feminism and social justice warriors. Of course, he's gone off half-cocked. The mafiaa groups don't care if they nail a male or a female. I don't think that the various intel services care much either. If some chick had been caught doing the same thing this guy did, I give it at least 75% chance that she would have been charged. And, if some rich kid had been caught, the chances go down, whether male or female.

          There's some kernel of truth to what he writes, but he's overstating his case, and being an obnoxious ass while doing so.

          • (Score: 3, Informative) by Virindi on Monday April 23 2018, @04:41PM

            by Virindi (3484) on Monday April 23 2018, @04:41PM (#670791)

            Yes, I get that. What I don't get is how he seems to be reading something into my views from previous post(s) which doesn't make sense.

            Or he's a really crappy troll, or both. Probably both.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @09:06PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @09:06PM (#670885)

            According to Runaway1956, "white hetero males have been targeted for extinction [soylentnews.org]."

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Monday April 23 2018, @11:47AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday April 23 2018, @11:47AM (#670694) Journal

    What was his name [wikipedia.org] again?

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @03:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @03:49PM (#670774)

      too much time has passed since then. It's unlikely that the people responsible for charging the 19 year old to remember that or even recognize the similarities.

      he, at least, can be forgiven for repeating such "mistakes" of youth.

  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by canopic jug on Monday April 23 2018, @01:24PM (7 children)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 23 2018, @01:24PM (#670726) Journal

    Whenever something passes through Bleeping Computer you can be sure that it was in the news a day or two or more earlier. In which case, point to the sources which got the scoop.

    More reliable sources like The Guardian had Two years' detention for UK teenager who 'cyberterrorised' US officials [theguardian.com] three days ago. So did M$ BBC which had Two years for teen 'cyber terrorist' who targeted US officials [bbc.co.uk]

    --
    Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @02:01PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @02:01PM (#670732)

      The Guardian and BBC News pages are about a different person, a man from England. Why do you call BBC News "M$ BBC"?

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by canopic jug on Monday April 23 2018, @03:50PM (1 child)

        by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 23 2018, @03:50PM (#670776) Journal

        Because many senior staff are directly from M$ and that affects their coverage.

        --
        Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @09:13PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @09:13PM (#670889)

          Will you name any specific staff members or offer any examples of slanted stories?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @02:41PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @02:41PM (#670752)

      Ah, yes, Great Britain. Composed of England and New Scotland.

      You didn't even read the headline, did you?

      • (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Monday April 23 2018, @04:00PM (2 children)

        by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 23 2018, @04:00PM (#670783) Journal

        There's too many to keep track of.

        Nevertheless, there are always better sites to point to than the slow and lame Bleeping Computer.

        The CBC cover it last week with Teen charged in Nova Scotia government breach says he had 'no malicious intent' [www.cbc.ca] and Story of N.S. teen accused in government website breach resonates with programmers [www.cbc.ca]. Even the Russian government's own Sputnik News covered it last week with Canadian Teenager Faces 10 Years in Prison for Downloading 7,000 FOIA Releases [sputniknews.com].

        --
        Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @10:32PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @10:32PM (#670910)

          > Nevertheless, there are always better sites to point to than the slow and lame Bleeping Computer.

          I think you mean slow in the sense of not being the first to break the news, not in the sense that the pages take a long time to load. For me the loading time was acceptable.

          > The CBC cover it last week with Teen charged in Nova Scotia government breach says he had 'no malicious intent'

          Bleeping Computer links to that story. As for the timeliness of this, that's not a priority for the SoylentNews editors. For example, in the submissions queue there's a pending submission [soylentnews.org] about an event that happened on the morning of April 14 (New York time). If it's approved, it won't run until the wee hours of April 24 (UTC). That's almost ten days. The date on Bleeping Computer's story says April 17, whilst the date on the CBC story says April 16. That's a difference of about one day. This story was submitted on April 18 and ran on April 23 (UTC). It was in the submissions queue for about five days.

          > Sputnik News covered it last week

          Yes, and the date on the Sputnik News story is April 18. Depending on time zones, the Bleeping Computer story may have been published first. You're telling us that Bleeping Computer is not "reliable" -- why? You also tell us that BBC News is biassed toward Microsoft. Then you direct us to Sputnik News, which is funded by the Russian government. Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] offers examples of biassed or non-factual stories that have appeared on Sputnik News. In this particular story, an assertion by the defendant is reported as fact: "...not realising that the records should not have been accessible...." An assertion by the government is reported as questionable: "...Internal Services Minister Patricia Arab claiming...." That is bias. The government of Russia, I imagine, may be pleased to have the opportunity to convince us that Canada does not respect freedom of inquiry, because Russia's own infringements of human rights, by comparison, appear less consequential.

          I don't speak Russian. Your subject line seems to be a Russian word for "alcoholism." I'm not grasping how it relates to the rest of your comment.

          • (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Tuesday April 24 2018, @05:40AM

            by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 24 2018, @05:40AM (#671040) Journal

            All news sites suck. The just suck in different ways.

            The best counter to that is to try to use articles that are as close to the primary source as possible. Bleeping Computer is almost always a layer or two further away from the primary source than the more timely sites. If you aren't receiving the information directly from the primary souce, it is guaranteed to be distorted [chadjthiele.com] with each degree of separation adding its own distortions. So, again, you need to be as close to the primary source as possible.

            However, each source might have only a small part of the big picture so it is necessary for the article's author to check with multiple primary sources. The best we can ask for then is an article in direct contact with multiple primary sources. Back to the bias, the news sites have diferent staff, editors, and advertisers or funding sources. Those all combine to make them realiable on certain topics and unreliable on other topics. That changes from time to time. The only thing that can be done about that is to keep track of that and adjust news source selection accordingly to gain articles from sites where they are strong and avoid articles on topics they fail at.

            So if you use the Bleeping Computer don't be lazy and just paste their link. Instead find the names and places in a current news search engine because by the time the news hits Bleeping Computer it will be well indexed and you can find the articles closer to the primary sources. Same goes for crap sites like Daily Mail and many others that don't need to be mentioned. This is all high-school level journalism. It's also source evaluation that use to be covered a lot at the undergraduate levels.

            --
            Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by The Archon V2.0 on Monday April 23 2018, @02:48PM

    by The Archon V2.0 (3887) on Monday April 23 2018, @02:48PM (#670757)

    Your teenagers are already fleeing by the dozen when they finish high school or college, and the entire place is turning into a retirement home. There's few jobs, and no doctors. Food and electricity costs keep creeping upward. Please, keep finding new ways to make the youth want to live somewhere else. Oh, wait, you can counterbalance that by paying to run ads in Alberta trying to coax them back! To that sweet sweet new call center you just helped build!

  • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @05:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @05:06PM (#670798)

    what about the whole chain of pigs who were brought into this situation and didn't laugh and say fuck off? enemies of humanity. period.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @06:09AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 24 2018, @06:09AM (#671045)

    The 2016 audit found Unisys itself was meeting standards, but the department of Internal Services was lacking on security controls.

    Hundreds of old user accounts still had access to unauthorized data, managers failed to take part in required meetings with the contractor and documents sent to the province about AMANDA’s performance went unread.

    “Unisys is providing the contractually-required monthly performance reports,” says Pickup. “We found no evidence that the department was reviewing these reports.”

    https://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/archives/2018/04/13/province-was-warned-about-sloppy-database-security-over-a-year-ago [thecoast.ca]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @04:01AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @04:01AM (#671508)

      MOD THIS UP

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