This is more like the door was left open and the lights were on, and you took pictures of the artwork on the entryway walls and then left.
Comment on Women Dating Safety App 'Tea' Breached, Users' IDs Posted to 4chan
JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 week agothis arguably is not even largely a hack.
While I agree in principle, I think we should still call it a hack. As in “to gain illegal access to (a computer network, system, etc.)” as Merriam-Webster puts it. It shouldn’t be legal to do do this just because the website had horrible (non-existent) security. You shouldn’t be allowed to rob a house just because the door wasn’t locked.
db2@lemmy.world 1 week ago
JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 week ago
Except it wasn’t artwork, it was driver’s licenses. You know, things you obviously shouldn’t have access to.
DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 1 week ago
At which step should it turn illegal? You accessing publicly available website? If I put PII on my website and send you a link, should you go to jail for opening the link? Or how do you make the distinction, when there is literally no security and its made publicly available?
JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 week ago
The thing is we don’t need to come up with some absolute definition of what should and shouldn’t be illegal to talk about this case specifically. They didn’t accidentally stumble on this. They doxxed the users instead of responsibly disclosing the problem. This is extremely cut and dry.
If the story here was “I mistyped something and got to a page I shouldn’t have access to, I disclosed it to the company, didn’t dox anyone by sharing the problem, and now the FBI is after me” it would be different.
DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 1 week ago
They were looking through publicly accessible buckets on firebase. They literally did stumble upon this by accident while going through public data. Should they have disclosed it once they realized what it was instead of spreading it? Sure, morally speaking. But I don’t see how you could write a law to make this illegal without just trampling on free speech.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 week ago
That’s a weird way to say they doxxed people instead of ethically disclosing what they found. Hiding that detail is why I have a problem with defending this.
If someone steals something they didn’t know belonged to someone (say through an unlocked door), should we prosecute them? I don’t know. What did they do next after they found out they shouldn’t be there? Did they give it back and tell the building owners “hey, you have an unlocked door” or did they yell to the street “hey everyone, come get free stuff!” How did they behave once they knew they did something wrong.