Dutch MP Fined For Ethical Hacking 122
An anonymous reader writes "Dutch Member of Parliament (MP) Henk Krol was fined 750 (US$1,000) by the district court of Oost-Brabant on Friday for breaking and entering the system of the Dutch medical laboratory Diagnostics for You. Krol said he entered the system as an ethical hacker to show that it was easy to access and download confidential medical information. Krol, leader of the Dutch 50plus party, accessed the systems of the laboratory with a login and password he had obtained from a patient of the clinic, who in turn had overheard the information at the laboratory from a psychiatrist that worked there ... In April last year, Krol used the login information to enter the company's Web server and subsequently viewed and downloaded medical files of several patients. He did this to prove how easy it was to get access to the systems, according to the ruling (PDF in Dutch).'"
Re:Showoff Gets Off Easy (Score:5, Informative)
At the same time, the judge argues, the defendant may not have had criminal intentions. So while the "hackers" crossed the line in their efforts to "expose" the bad security, they were not sent to prison as they are not criminals.
Re:Head in sand (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds like the Dutch have some good judges exercising common sense on this issue.
Re:Civil Disobedience (Score:4, Informative)
Breaking an unjust law to call attention to it doesn't alleviate the consequences of it. Despite what the history textbooks say, Ms. Parks was not just a random black woman who decided to make a stand. She was carefully groomed, the act was carefully planned and timed, and she was more than aware of what the consequences could be. She was likely prepared to end up a martyr. As luck would have it, she didn't have to.
Get the details!! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Showoff Gets Off Easy (Score:5, Informative)
We don't have juries in the Netherlands.
Re:Thats how civilized countries do it! (Score:4, Informative)
No and no. All people are equal for the law here, and the guy is quite popular so this will not cost him many votes.
Re:Showoff Gets Off Easy (Score:4, Informative)
For the non-Dutch: the 50plus party defends the interests of people above 50 years of age. I was quite surprised when I saw him on the Dutch news last year, showing off his "1337 h4x0r sk1llz".