Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Confused Governor Says Looking at Webpage's HTML is Criminal Hacking

posted by FatPhil on Monday October 18 2021, @08:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-even-think-about-editing-the-URL dept.

upstart writes:

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/

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Confused Governor Says Looking at Webpage's HTML is Criminal Hacking | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 59 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by nitehawk214 on Monday October 18 2021, @01:57PM (2 children)

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Monday October 18 2021, @01:57PM (#1187984)

    I would argue that those are not webpages. Just browser bastardization.

    Emphasis on the bastard.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Funny=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday October 18 2021, @02:14PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 18 2021, @02:14PM (#1187996) Journal

    Hey, we need applications in the cloud, dude!

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"

    • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday October 19 2021, @09:28AM

      by isostatic (365) on Tuesday October 19 2021, @09:28AM (#1188357) Journal

      Ironically cloud based people never touch hardware, or ilos. It's old farts like me that deal with our own equipment.