Reporter Clicks ‘View Source’ On Web Browser, Could Now Face Charges
Image ID 129896215 © via Peerapong Boriboon | Dreamstime.com
In October 2021, Missouri Governor Mike Parson called out a journalist after the well-meaning individual reported a vulnerability he spotted on the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s website.
Josh Renaud, who works at the St Louis Post-Dispatch, had pointed out that the page had been displaying educators’ Social Security numbers in its HTML source code, which could be viewed by anyone who accessed the site.
As per Boing Boing, it now appears Renaud could face prosecution for “computer tampering,” despite the fact that all web browsers carry the “view source” function.
“A hacker is someone who gains unauthorized access to information or content. This individual did not have permission to do what they did. They had no authorization to convert and decode the code,” Parson had written when the story first broke, ignoring tweets telling him the reporter’s actions weren’t “hacking.”
It’s important to note that the newspaper didn’t publish a report about the vulnerability till after the issue had been addressed by the officials. There was no personal information leaked, either.
According to the Post-Dispatch, a cybersecurity specialist did inform Sandra Karsten, the director of the Department of Public Safety, that an FBI agent concurred that the incident did not constitute “an actual network intrusion.” Rather, the state’s webpage had been “misconfigured,” allowing “open source tools to be used to query data that should not be public.”
The newspaper is standing firm behind its reporter, saying: “These documents show there was no network intrusion. As DESE initially acknowledge, the reporter should have been thanked for the responsible way he handled the matter and not chastised or investigated as a hacker.”
[via Boing Boing and St Louis Post-Dispatch, cover image via Peerapong Boriboon | Dreamstime.com]
