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from the don't-even-think-about-editing-the-URL dept.
Confused governor says looking at webpage's HTML is criminal hacking:
Gov. Mike Parson is sick and tired of all these sophisticated, no-good hackers and he's not going to take it any more. It's too bad the Missouri Republican has no idea what he's talking about.
During a Thursday press conference, the confused elected official lashed out at a journalist who reported a vulnerability in an official Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website. The reporter, notably, waited until officials fixed the error before publishing the story. The flaw? The website apparently included teachers' Social Security numbers in the HTML.
"Though no private information was clearly visible nor searchable on any of the web pages, the newspaper found that teachers' Social Security numbers were contained in the HTML source code of the pages involved," reported the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Parson, who apparently has never heard of "view source," obliquely threatened the Post reporter with prosecution.
"The state is committing to bring to justice anyone who hacked our system and anyone who aided or encouraged them to do so — in accordance with what Missouri law allows AND requires," wrote Parson.
[... - plenty snipped - ...] Parson, in other words, has no idea what he's talking about.
canopic jug augments that with the following other sources:
Governor Mike Parson wishes that ctrl-u or f12 will become illegal. This was actually a breach of personal information, including SSANs, for over 100,000 people.
https://text.npr.org/1046124278
https://www.salon.com/2021/10/14/missouri-governor-threatens-criminal-prosecution-of-reporter-found-security-flaw-in-state-site_partner/
https://itwire.com/security/missouri-goes-after-man-who-looked-at-source-code-on-state-site.html
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/missouri-governor-teacher-data-hacking-1242493/
https://coldstreams.com/2021/10/14/no-it-isnt-missouri-governor-says-viewing-html-source-code-containing-private-data-the-state-published-on-every-page-is-a-crime/
https://abc17news.com/news/missouri/2021/10/14/gov-parson-threatens-legal-action-against-reporter-who-exposed-flaw-on-state-education-departments-website/
https://heavy.com/news/gov-mike-parson-html-source-code-decoded-ssn/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 18 2021, @12:37PM (3 children)
Consider an old fashoned paper system where you call in and the state snail mails you the same information.
They print the info on a sheet or paper (The visable web page)
They put the sheet in an envelope. (The HTML)
They hide a braindead tracking number in small print on the envelope (The SSN.)
They put the envelope in a 'security' outer envelope and send it registered mail. (The 'S' im HTTPS/)
A reporter gets a few reports and notices the SSN printed on the inner envelope.
Instead of publishing the situation, he allerts the state and gives them a chance to fix their process.
The Gov goes ballistic ignoring that his folks sent the SSN to the reporter and saying the reporter wasn't supposed to read it because it was in a 'security' envelope.
The judge looks at the situation, laughs, and submits the Gov for a Streisand_effect class.
The reporter publishes a nice article showing how and why to look at web page sources.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Dr Spin on Monday October 18 2021, @01:05PM
The reporter publishes a nice article showing how and why to look at web page sources.
That is the problem right there!
The reporter should have explained how not to look at state web pages
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday October 18 2021, @06:48PM (1 child)
Your post reminded me of something I still chuckle about. This isn't exactly on-topic, but I worked for the Illinois bureau that was trying to scientifically find a way to get people back to work. Most of my co-workers were sociologists, psychologists, and statisticians. I was a methods and procedures something something, I've forgotten the exact title.
Anyway, they had a program called "Project Chance" and wanted to know what the clients (welfare recipients) thought of it. They thought folks would like it. They designed a survey and mailed out 90,000 of the people on the experimental program. 30,000 came back, which they told me was unprecedented for a survey, a far better response than expected. I was tasked with building a small database to hold the survey data. Small compared to the mainframe databases...
The results were not only overwhelmingly negative, they were downright hostile. But what I thought was funny was the document number. It's a bureaucracy thing, where every different state document has to have a document number, so there was a document number on every survey, the exact same number on every survey. People obviously thought it was a tracking number, because they would hide it with a magic marker or tear it off. This was especially with the most hostility laden vulgarities.
Needless to say, the study was buried quickly, but what the clients called "project no chance" didn't stay around long, either. I was amused.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 19 2021, @01:54AM
Humorous yes, but a perfectly reasonable assumption on their part. If the government sends me a form with a twelve digit number on it, I would also assume it is a tracking number until proved otherwise. Especially if the document was in any way personalized.