Latvian hacker tweets hard on banking whistle A hacker has become a popular hero in the Baltics, and scourge to the authorities, by leaking information on the finances of banks and state-run firms to Latvian TV. The whistle-blowing cracker, who calls himself Neo in an apparent Matrix tribute, is feeding embarrassing information such as the pay of managers who work for a …
There was no hacking or cracking involved in the database leak - it wasn't even a security hole or a backdoor. All downloaded data was available on their web server, you could simply type in the URL for the next document and Bob's your uncle. Undocumented - yes, but doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
Nevertheless - good job, I doubt they could bring any charges that would stick. Some of the published data also reveals massive discrepancies in police salaries, so many cops would side with Neo.
In some countries, albeit I've no idea if it's true of Latvia, the fact that the information is available does not automatically grants one the right to access it. Gaining knowledge of that information is then assimilated to "hacking" (if there is even such a legal definition of the term).
After that, relaying that information to third-parties is of course even worse and is sometimes considered as counterfeiting or "dealing" in stolen goods.
I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case in the UK judicial system itself.
It looks as if the UK civil service has outreached at least as far as Latvia.
Shame that an emerging nation has caught the Brit Disease though :-(
Now what might happen if something similar occurred in the UK?
ps: should the dood or doodess require moral support in times of inflicted hardship will el reg offer a venue?
(News is news, consequences is consequences yes?)
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