Quarter of a million lawyer disciplinary records leak

Approximately 260,000 nonpublic disciplinary records stored on behalf of The State Bar of California were found to be exposed to the public and to have been republished on Judyrecords.com, a website that aggregates over 630 million public court records. The sensitive records exposed include the case number, filing date, case …

[elDog]

The US states (and less so the federals) are woefully inept at protecting their residents

Underfunded, under-appreciated, never given a voice at the big boys table. That's the state of cyber security. Admittedly this is California who should have some savvy and budgets.

And since this needs to be repeated 50 times (for each state) and the underfunding is rampant at the state level, guess where miscreants are going to focus attention.

Add in a bunch of crazies in gov't who think that Elvis lives and Trump won in every election since Reagan, then you have a perfect petri dish to inject new pathogens.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The US states (and less so the federals) are woefully inept at protecting their residents

What on earth does Trump have to do with this? The obsession with him is insane tbh.

[jake]

Re: The US states (and less so the federals) are woefully inept at protecting their residents

Trump has nothing to do with this. The OP was talking about the fucking loons on Capitol Hill who insist that the election was stolen, despite all evidence to the contrary.

However, you are quite correct ... the obsession with Trump by the electorate that will put those very same elected loons back into power is utterly insane.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a hack, an oops

I predict that Tyler misconfigured the database and will try to sweep this under the rug with the help of the State Bar of California. If we hear anything more of this it will be a bland statement that security improvements have been made to ensure that it never happens again, At least until someone else fat fingers a configuration.

[Eclectic Man]

Re: Not a hack, an oops

As you said, HildyJ, I'm sure that "lessons will be learned" too.

Reminds me of

https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/15/missouri_governor_prosecution_html_source_code/

[jake]

Re: Not a hack, an oops

"Reminds me of"

It reminded ElReg of that, too. Perhaps read the entire article next time?

[Eclectic Man]

Re: Not a hack, an oops

Hi, Jake: "Perhaps read the entire article next time?"

I did read the entire article, I even followed the embedded link. The Register article links to:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/15/missouri_html_hacking/

I linked to:

https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/15/missouri_governor_prosecution_html_source_code/

Same story, but different articles.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Not a hack, an oops

Lessons don't seem to have been learned in Missouri.

[Ian Johnston]

Re: Not a hack, an oops

"Lessons" and "learning" aren't really Missouri things. They prefer to believe televangelists, Fox News and what they think the bible says, in that order.

[Anonymous Coward]

They keep using that word, I do not think it means what they think it means.

public (adjective) done, perceived, or existing in open view

If not what they meant to do, it's what THEY themselves did.

Which is to say, weather they intended to or not, they did in fact make the information public, in both the sense of publishing it in open view, as well as not having marked it as classified or in some other way restricted.

The site hosting the documents didn't even have to <view source>

[jake]

Re: They keep using that word, I do not think it means what they think it means.

"Which is to say, weather they intended to or not, they did in fact make the information public"

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

_{On the other hand, when there's an appalling spell of whether ...}

[ShadowSystems]

Damn I hate that phrase...

"We take $Thing seriously & will..." makes me want to shove the ShockyStick(TM) so far up their arse that it rattles against their skull, then trigger the ShockyStick(TM) until the batteries die.

NO you do NOT take it seriously, if you did then this never would have happened. We should be allowed to make you dance like a marionette held by an epileptic on an earthquake simulation table trying to ride a wonky pogo stick while too drunk to see straight.

*Sigh*

[DJO]

Re: Damn I hate that phrase...

Hold back the ShockyStick™ until they say "lessons have been learnt".

At that point you may deploy the 3 phase Super-ShockyStick™ with my full blessing.

[Potemkine!]

We take our obligations to protect confidential data with the utmost seriousness, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that we resolve this issue quickly and prevent any such breaches from recurring

[Little Mouse]

What exactly is a "Disciplinary Record" anyway?

250,000 sounds like a lot. Does California have the worst-behaved lawyers or something?

[Duncan Macdonald]

Re: What exactly is a "Disciplinary Record" anyway?

Washington DC is certain to hold the record !!!

[batfink]

Re: What exactly is a "Disciplinary Record" anyway?

That was the point that stuck with me as well. 250,000 lawcritters on the disciplinary record? Out of how many?

Even putting aside those never caught, you have to be worried about a profession with that kind of record.

[Eclectic Man]

Re: What exactly is a "Disciplinary Record" anyway?

I don't know, but it would be nice if a lawyer type person could explain whether a disciplinary record can be blank, like a Criminal Record Check for working with children or vulnerable adults can be in the UK?

It might also include records of complaints which were found to be baseless.

[jake]

Re: What exactly is a "Disciplinary Record" anyway?

"That was the point that stuck with me as well. 250,000 lawcritters on the disciplinary record?"

No. 250,000 records, unknown number of landsharks. I would imagine that of the few lawyers who play fast and loose with the rules, most do so more than once.

[DevOpsTimothyC]

Re: What exactly is a "Disciplinary Record" anyway?

Playing devils advocate I'd say each record is someone making a complaint no matter how slight or serious. I'm expect it to range from "They have bad BO" to offences that should get the lawyer not just debarred but thrown in prison.

[jake]

Re: What exactly is a "Disciplinary Record" anyway?

Since nobody has answered the question yet ...

A "disciplinary record" is maintained by a professional organization detailing transgressions of its members who have broken (or sometimes severely bent) that organization's bylaws, and sometimes the actual law of the land. It is a record of transgressions, not individuals ... although the individual is usually named (this is dependent on the organization's bye-laws).

It can be thought of as the adult version of a school-kid's apocryphal/mythical "permanent record".

[ShadowSystems]

At Little Mouse, re: lawyers.

I am disheartened to have to admit that California has far, far, FAR more than it's fair share of lawyers. Southern California is the home of Hollywood, the MPAA, RIAA, & SCO. The Southern part of the state is so full of lawyers & their ilk that you can't swing a (dead) cat without hitting one of the buggers.

Northern California has it's chamber pot full of the bastards too, but nothing compared to Los Angeles.

Central California is getting the spill over from Southern, Silicon Valley seems to attract the bastards like cockroaches to a pile of rotting doughnut.

I wish it were legal to get a hunting license to go after lawyers in the same way hunters go after deer. I'd not be the only one to pay for an unlimited number, year round, lifetime ability to run them down, back over them a few times, & keep the current tally on a dashboard mounted scorecard.

*Happily whistful sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

"We believe the issue is broader than the State Bar, because ..."

Erm, well we're lawyers and... erm, it's the fault of the system... the administration... the previous administration... termites...

[jake]

You forgot Joe. It's always Joe's fault.