[IP] Use a non-standard browser, go to jail.
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Subject: Use a non-standard browser, go to jail.
Author: "Trei, Peter" <ptrei@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 28th January 2005 10:16:32 am
For IP, if you wish.
A post to boingboing from Cory Doctorow
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Doctorow)
whom I generally regard as a reliable
source. However, I have not myself been able to
further confirm the story. It hasn't
appeared on several British newspaper
sites today, nor has the BBC done a
followup.
Interesting, if true.
Peter Trei
---------------------------
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/01/27/jailed_for_using_a_n.html
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Jailed for using a nonstandard browser
A Londonder made a tsnuami-relief donation using
lynx -- a text-based browser used by the blind,
Unix-users and others -- on Sun's Solaris operating
system. The site-operator decided that this "unusual"
event in the system log indicated a hack-attempt,
and the police broke down the donor's door and
arrested him. From a mailing list:
For donating to a Tsunami appeal using Lynx
on Solaris 10. BT [British Telecom] who run the
donation management system misread an access log
and saw hmm thats a non standard browser not
identifying it's type and it's doing strange things.
Trace that IP. Arrest that hacker.
Armed police, a van, a police cell and national
news later the police have gone in SWAT styley and
arrested someone having their lunch.
Out on bail till next week and preparing to make
a lot of very bad PR for BT and the Police....
So just goes to show if you use anything other
than Firefox or IE and you rely on someone else to
interogate access logs or IDS logs you too could be
sitting in a paper suit in a cell :(
BBC article link
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4195339.stm> (Thanks, Patrick!)
Update:: The source that told me about this has
corroborated it with more detail in private email, but
is leery of going public. I hope that more publicly
available details appear soon, and will post them
when I have them.
posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:08:00 AM
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