October 11, 2005

The Future For British Geeks (2)

Typing "../../../" into your URL bar can now be a criminal offence punishable by a £1000 fine, even if there are no malicious motives in your actions.

Posted by gerv at October 11, 2005 4:53 PM
Comments

Why are people like this on Earth?

Posted by: Tsee at October 11, 2005 6:09 PM

FTA: "It is dangerous for individuals to play with these kind of things."

I'm left wondering who's actually the bigger threat to society here, the user or the other lot that had him arrested.

Posted by: ant at October 11, 2005 6:34 PM

.... he donated and he tried to exploit their website , found out it was secure and did nothing else , i presume if he found it worked he would of reported it.

I dont see whats wrong here HE DID NOTHING.

dodgy people they only are charging him so it seems like they are cracking down on "hackers"

Posted by: matt labrum at October 11, 2005 6:51 PM

Or, alternatively, typing "../../../" into your URL bar, then lying to the police about what you've done is a criminal offence...

Posted by: Ben Lings at October 11, 2005 9:45 PM

What about clicking on a link that contains '../../../'. It has the same effect.

Posted by: Alan Trick at October 12, 2005 12:42 AM

@Ben Lings: I didn't see anything in the article about him lying to the police. Certainly that would have been a criminal offence, but it doesn't seem like that's what he was prosecuted for...

Next Apple will be prosecuted because Safari didn't block the use of the "illegal" string in the URL bar. *sigh*

Posted by: Rishi at October 12, 2005 4:38 AM
Some have questioned the Met's claim that the verdict, "sends a reassuring message to the general public". One reader said, "the message it sends to the public is that the Met are inhumane and without compassion. They should have exercised discretion and better judgement."

Well, they didn't shoot him in the head this time, so it is slightly reassuring :-/

Posted by: James M at October 12, 2005 12:46 PM

first it was just because he was using a text browser, now it's that he was testing the site.

Is it so improbable to believe that maybe he was proved to have been attempting to hack the site and has tried multiple excuses to cloud the issue?

Posted by: tonty at October 14, 2005 5:46 PM