Journalist Labeled 'Hacker' By Missouri's Governor Will Not Be Prosecuted (stltoday.com) 114
Remember when more than 100,000 Social Security numbers of Missouri teachers were revealed in the HTML code of a state web site? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's reporter informed the state government and delayed publishings his findings until they'd fixed the hole — but the state's governor then demanded the reporter's prosecution, labelling him "a hacker." In the months that followed, throughout a probe — which for some reason was run by the state's Highway Patrol — the governor had continued to suggest that prosecution of that reporter was imminent.
But it's not. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: A St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalist will not be charged after pointing out a weakness in a state computer database, the prosecuting attorney for Cole County said Friday. Prosecutor Locke Thompson issued a statement to television station KRCG Friday, saying he appreciated Gov. Mike Parson for forwarding his concerns but would not be filing charges....
Parson, who had suggested prosecution was imminent throughout the probe, issued a statement saying Thompson's office believed the decision "was properly addressed...." Post-Dispatch Publisher Ian Caso said in a statement Friday: "We are pleased the prosecutor recognized there was no legitimate basis for any charges against the St. Louis Post-Dispatch or our reporter. While an investigation of how the state allowed this information to be accessible was appropriate, the accusations against our reporter were unfounded and made to deflect embarrassment for the state's failures and for political purposes...."
There is no authorization required to examine public websites, but some researchers say overly broad hacking laws in many jurisdictions let embarrassed institutions lob hacking allegations against good Samaritans who try to flag vulnerabilities before they're exploited....
A political action committee supporting Parson ran an ad attacking the newspaper over the computer incident, saying the governor was "standing up to the fake news media."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader UnknowingFool for submitting the story.
But it's not. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: A St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalist will not be charged after pointing out a weakness in a state computer database, the prosecuting attorney for Cole County said Friday. Prosecutor Locke Thompson issued a statement to television station KRCG Friday, saying he appreciated Gov. Mike Parson for forwarding his concerns but would not be filing charges....
Parson, who had suggested prosecution was imminent throughout the probe, issued a statement saying Thompson's office believed the decision "was properly addressed...." Post-Dispatch Publisher Ian Caso said in a statement Friday: "We are pleased the prosecutor recognized there was no legitimate basis for any charges against the St. Louis Post-Dispatch or our reporter. While an investigation of how the state allowed this information to be accessible was appropriate, the accusations against our reporter were unfounded and made to deflect embarrassment for the state's failures and for political purposes...."
There is no authorization required to examine public websites, but some researchers say overly broad hacking laws in many jurisdictions let embarrassed institutions lob hacking allegations against good Samaritans who try to flag vulnerabilities before they're exploited....
A political action committee supporting Parson ran an ad attacking the newspaper over the computer incident, saying the governor was "standing up to the fake news media."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader UnknowingFool for submitting the story.
Re:Dumbass Governor. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think it was stupidity, I think it was *magical thinking*.
Magic is a more natural, intuitive, and emotionally compelling way to deal with the world than critical thinking, and one of the most common and universal superstitions is that to name an evil thing is to conjure it.
Lots of people are governed by this superstition without explicitly believing it. Plenty managers try to avert disaster by quashing bad news. There may even be some practical value for someone out of his depth to do this, particularly a *politician*. But I don't think it's something people do because they've done some kind of game-theoretical analysis. The impulse to shoot the messenger is natural, instinctive and emotionally refractory.
If one thing that past several years has made clear is that superstition is more powerful a force today than it has been at any other time in modern history.
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A couple of things seem broken about your post.
Magic is a more natural, intuitive, and emotionally compelling way to deal with the world than critical thinking, and one of the most common and universal superstitions is that to name an evil thing is to conjure it.
Even when applying critical thinking everyone ultimately arrives at a magical barrier. It is the barrier beyond which the person cannot understand anymore. By some this barrier is encountered earlier than by others. But it is always there at the periphery.
Plenty managers try to avert disaster by quashing bad news.
Squashing bad news is not magical thinking. It is a highly effective practice with a strong track record all throughout history.
Adjacent to this is the practice of outright making shit up and calling it truth.
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A couple of things seem broken about your post.
Magic is a more natural, intuitive, and emotionally compelling way to deal with the world than critical thinking, and one of the most common and universal superstitions is that to name an evil thing is to conjure it.
Even when applying critical thinking everyone ultimately arrives at a magical barrier. It is the barrier beyond which the person cannot understand anymore. By some this barrier is encountered earlier than by others. But it is always there at the periphery.
The difference between somebody smart and somebody dumb is that a smart person knows that and knows where their own limit is and does use rational processes right up to that barrier and then stops. A dumb person uses magical thinking as a substitute for rational thought in the first place. So the existence of that limit really is immaterial for the argument given.
Plenty managers try to avert disaster by quashing bad news.
Squashing bad news is not magical thinking. It is a highly effective practice with a strong track record all throughout history.
And in actual reality is is a sign of utter incompetence and has caused countless minor and major disasters. Your statement is so disconnected fro
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The difference between somebody smart and somebody dumb is that a smart person knows that and knows where their own limit is and does use rational processes right up to that barrier and then stops.
No, not really. Smart people fuck-up this part as well with staggering frequency.
There is a lot of magical thinking in academia.
And in actual reality is is a sign of utter incompetence and has caused countless minor and major disasters.
Manipulating media is not incompetence, it's a well developed tool for manipulating the masses, for creating your own reality from a position of power. And sure, it caused countless disasters, etc, etc.
Your statement is so disconnected from reality that I am wondering whether you are being sarcastic.
I don't think you know reality yet. No sarcasm intended.
We are at a point where perception is almost everything. Media use is maximized in politics. All this riling against stupid sh
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I don't think it was stupidity, I think it was *magical thinking*.
/quote>
That profound a disconnect from reality is either stupidity or mental illness.
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I think a lot of people get by with profound, but *selective* disconnects from reality.
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I think a lot of people get by with profound, but *selective* disconnects from reality.
Sure. Until they mess up that selection. "I am a really good river and not going too fast for that road." "I understand how vaccination works and chose not to get it." "I understand politics and vote for the best candidate." "This NFT idea/Nigerian prince/etc. is obviously a money-maker for me and I am competent to judge that."
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Yes, all true. But how is this not a manifestation of stupidity?
Re:Dumbass Governor. (Score:5, Informative)
There isn't any argument to be made against baseless accusations that aren't backed by any citations of any peer reviewed news content. Clinton was deeply investigated and no charges ever brought. Biden's past was amply discussed during the campaign and no credible evidence was found to back your claims. At this point, you're just inventing fictions for whatever motivates you.
Re:Dumbass Governor. (Score:4, Informative)
It's interesting to note they never mentioned the rapes committed by Neil Gorsuch and the con artist. Remember, the con artist has refused to have his cheek swabbed, something which takes all of 30 seconds, to show it's not his DNA on the woman's dress.
No one who is innocent would object to providing evidence to exonerate them.
Re:Dumbass Governor. (Score:5, Insightful)
> No one who is innocent would object to providing evidence to exonerate them.
That's not true. There are plenty of situations where I as an innocent person would refuse an illegal search by cops. The reasons range from the selfish "I'm not guilty of that crime, but I am guilty of some other crime that this would implicate me for" to the noble "cops generally shouldn't have that power because it is easy to abuse and I'm privileged enough to stand up for those who cannot", with several other reasons in between those extremes. There are cases where it's more important to break the accusers of the habit of accusation without proving innocence.
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Gorsuch? You sure you have the right Justice?
I assume you mean Kavanaugh, or even Thomas, though they were accused of attempted rape and/or sexual assault and sexual harassment.
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Gorsuch? You sure you have the right Justice?
I assume you mean Kavanaugh, or even Thomas, though they were accused of attempted rape and/or sexual assault and sexual harassment.
My apologies. Yes, Kavanaugh. I had just read an article where Gorsuch's name was mentioned and it bled into my comment.
Thomas has his own problems with his wife giving support to the January 6th insurrectionist attack on the capitol.
Wait, really? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: Wait, really? (Score:2)
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No need to project your own self conscious insecurities on others. We get it, and it's ok that you're not as well endowed. No one on here cares, wants to hear about it, or will ever see it. You are, though, welcome to keep posting your negative comments until your karma is completely gone and you get banned.
My karma is still well within the positive and you're still a tiny-dicked pissant.
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In that both are a common occurrence.
Re: Wait, really? (Score:2)
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Re:Wait, really? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not defending the police in this matter, but most of this was bad blood between the governor and the newspaper that the reporter worked for if I have read some of the other articles about this issue correctly.
Re: Wait, really? (Score:2)
Re:Wait, really? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wait, really? (Score:5, Insightful)
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The police are some of the LEAST educated [...] in the US, PERIOD
There, FTFY
All it takes to become a cop in the USA is a couple years of community college in an academy where they are probably going to fill your head with lies like the idea that there is a "war on cops" when this is the safest time in history to be a cop in the USA.
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Re: Wait, really? (Score:2)
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Re: Wait, really? (Score:2)
Performance art formerly known as Republican party (Score:4, Informative)
Another day, another exhibition. Enjoy it while you're here, you may not survive the next one.
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Those 4 years of "malfeasance" under Trump ...
More like four years of complete and utter incompetence and bumbling stupidity ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]. I wonder if the US population as a whole will ever realise just how hard the entire planet laughs at the idea that they voted for this guy because of his 'good genes', 'business genius' and because he pretends to believe the same asinine 'Vaccines plant tentacle monsters in your brain' conspiracy theories they believe?
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You left out the sekret Jewish space lasers, pizzagate, Trump's attempt to overturn democracy and his bitter disappointment that Pence had no stomach to help him do it (also he lacked the power to do it), and even the confused press conference in the parking lot of a landscaper sandwiched between a funeral home and a sex toys shop. Also the long running attempt to find ANYTHING at all on Clinton to justify locking her up.
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Sixty years from now, shitlibs will still be claiming that the 2016 election was stolen from Hillary
Maybe it's my outsider perspective, but I don't remember people going on about how the 2016 election was stolen from Hillary Clinton much a year after the election.
But today, a year after the last election, we hear about new recounts and complaints from people that don't want to accept that Trump lost.
So my prediction is that if 60 years from now anybody cares about the elections of today, it will be very likely be Trumpers that can't let go.
Re:Performance art formerly known as Republican pa (Score:5, Informative)
I've not seen anyone claim the 2016 election was stolen, though plenty of people attribute the outcome to the use of very dirty, underhanded tricks. The accusation is that Trump won unfairly. The DNC email hack suggested that Russian intelligence services, were intervening to benefit Trump by harming his opponent, with plenty of substantiating evidence later documented in the Mueller report. A suspiciously-timed investigation into Clinton's email deletion days before the election, which was closed after the election having found no evidence of crimes. But the claims of ballot-stuffing, voting machine hacks and outright fraud are made by Trump's supporters for the 2020 election, not the 2016.
Re:Performance art formerly known as Republican pa (Score:4, Informative)
I voted for Clinton, and she was infinitely better than Trump, and Trump had been committing financial crimes his entire life. The crimes he committed in office should have seen him perp walked out in cuffs the minute his term expired even if you subscribe to the bullshit argument the President is a King while in office. But this was beyond doubt a case of Clinton being powerful enough to not have to comply with the law to the same standards the commoners are.
Saying Comey cleared Clinton is like saying Mueller cleared Trump, when he, at a minimum, established obstruction of justice.
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Intent isn't required... but for most crimes intent is a huge factor in whether they'll get charged. And from what I recall even that 'removing the headers' bit was very ambiguous.
I think Clinton belongs to the "managerial class" where they can exempt themselves from most of the non-criminal rules (meant to stop people from inadvertently breaking the law), and thus when they do inadvertently break the law they tend to be let off the hook.
It's disappointing and an issue with corporate/political culture, but
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For the majority of crime, intent is required. It is is often ignored, but it an inherent part of Theft and Murder. It is not a requirement for negligence crimes, where you can be tried for failing to take proper precautions.
As regards to Clinton's case, she explicitly took proper precautions, but other people ignored them. That is, her email server was designated as non-secure and everyone was told not to send secure information to it. Other people committed the crime of ignoring this instruction. Th
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Both major parties are so full of filth you could whataboutism back and forth until the heat death of the universe. The hyper-polarization is just a big ploy to have the American public fighting each other, rather than realizing both parties are bought and paid for by rich corporate interests.
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Make no mistake, I'm not cheering for the D's so much as I am preferring to keep absolute KOOKS out of office (REALLY! Jewish Space lasers, SERIOUSLY??!?). It's important.
Once the kooks are out, we can go after the spineless and the corporate toadies.
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America is built on the spineless and corporate toadies. I'd just like to get back to the devil we have a history of somewhat reasonably managing.
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Why yes, side A kills and eats human beings, but side B bstole hundreds of dollars. The belief that both sides are bad is a lie spread by the truly bad guys.
There is ALWAYS one side that is slightly better than the other. As portrayed in South Park, you may have to choose between a douche and a turd sandwhich, but one is actually better.
The truth is that over decades, the constant choice of the slightly better side results in both sides becoming better. Once upon a time the choice was between the party o
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Hosting State Dept stuff on a private server isn't jailable? You know damn well that if anyone else did that, they'd be rotting in jail right now.
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It's pretty common actually. Even people in the Trump admin (including the Trump family) used private servers to conduct government business.
Re:Performance art formerly known as Republican pa (Score:4)
And Dear Leader uttering over 30,000 falsehoods. in 4 years. Either he's a lying sack of shit and/or he's the dumbest ass on the planet.
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And Dear Leader uttering over 30,000 falsehoods. in 4 years. Either he's a lying sack of shit and/or he's the dumbest ass on the planet.
I think he is both. The real problem is that he is getting away this this crap because there are a really large number of dumb morons that think their guy being in power is more important that the person being in power having actual skills at his job. Without the mindless masses supporting him and that rather large inheritance, Trump would never have been more than an used-car salesman.
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Another day, another exhibition. Enjoy it while you're here, you may not survive the next one.
Possibly. Dark times ahead and lots of morons cheering for those that will bring them.
the state needs to pay for expungement costs (Score:2)
the state needs to pay for expungement costs to remove this from the records
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They could start with the governor, I think that would help.
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Mike Parson should be prosecuted (Score:5, Insightful)
For abuse of office
What about his voters? (Score:2)
What about the people who knowingly voted for him? Why do they get a free pass? At minimum, it is willful negligence.
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What about the people who knowingly voted for him? Why do they get a free pass? At minimum, it is willful negligence.
Voters pay with blood for their mistakes. Eventually. Unfortunately the ones that lost pay too.
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Damn, you caught us. Biden made Russia threaten Ukraine.
Re: What about his voters? (Score:2)
You treasonous fucktards are already flying your flags upside down, so the next logical step is to bring up the bullshit FEMA camp fantasy again. I'm sure the Gazpacho Police are prepping as we speak...
Shouldn't you be posting your plywood "Trump One The Elecshun" sign in your yard or something?
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Re:What? He was doing the job properly (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What? He was doing the job properly (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is it even appropriate for a politician to even weigh in on these things? It should have been “the matter has been referred to law enforcement for consideration” and left entirely at that - no commenting in it in any other manner, no grandstanding, nothing.
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Re:What? He was doing the job properly (Score:5, Insightful)
If politicians don't virtue signal and rile up the base. Who will vote for them?
Everywhere other than the US and a few ultra nationalist nests like Serbia? ... Those who vote for non virtues signalling and base riling politicians are the vast majority of voters who care about issues, policies and solving the nations' problems. You've been stuck in the US hate bubble for too long, you should vacation in a normal country, ... like Italy. To a European that sounds funny because we consider Italy a somewhat dysfunctional democracy but compared to what is happening in the US these days Italian political culture looks like the very definition of 'completely normal'.
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You got it in one. Politicians are now standup comedians at best, and shouting preachers on a street corner at wo^Wmediocre'ish...
Previous story... (Score:5, Insightful)
Given the previous story about the government pushing for improved security, idiotic politicians like this one do need to be rooted out. Such behaviour is only going to scare away legitimate researchers and journalists, while actual malicious hackers will be based abroad and far out of the reach of local governors and the highway patrol.
This guy is just an incompetent bumbling idiot, opening his mouth in public about something he has absolutely no understanding of. Even worse when such idiots are in prominent positions allowing them to cause undeserved harm and inconvenience to innocent people.
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Often the voters only had two bumbling idiots to choose from...
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Little Bobby Tables? (Score:2)
What? (Score:5, Insightful)
A political action committee supporting Parson ran an ad attacking the newspaper over the computer incident, saying the governor was "standing up to the fake news media."
What does that even mean in this context? The database wasn't actually vulnerable? The reporter didn't actually access it? He was the one waving the ol' prosecution gun around over the reporter accessing it, if the news is fake then so is his accusation. Forget "this is why we can't have nice things", this is why we can't even have words mean anything anymore.
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"We" can have words mean things. "They" cannot. Whichever side you're on -- and, alas, there are two sides, firmly entrenched -- there can be no words across the divide. Luckily, we're in an era where we fight with ballots not bullets, but this is a civil war at this point, and I have no idea how you negotiate a truce when language itself breaks down. I think one side or the other has to decide that losing is acceptable (worse than continuing to fight), which I think is impossible when the fight is existent
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The fight isn't existential on both sides. Nobody is trying to stamp out white supremacists. If they want to only fuck other white supremacists nobody is going to stop them. The only thing of theirs under threat is their majority status which has helped them stomp on everyone else throughout history.
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The white supremacists believe that it is existential -- that whites will be destroyed in revenge attacks and/or mixed breeding. It's the belief that matters, not the actuality, when it comes to figuring out whether they'll continue the language-equivalent of scorched earth tactics.
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I think most of them fundamentally know that they are not actually under direct attack, and that they are the dangerous ones. However, I think they're using the belief that they are in much the same way as "save the planet". People ascribe a life and existence to the planet which is not warranted in order to galvanize themselves for action. But equally it's silly to be upset about people using that particular phrase when what they mean is "save the humans" or possibly "save the biosphere" (I prefer the latt
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Agreed. And I don't have a good solution to propose.
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Voters (Score:2)
What about the people who knowingly voted for him? How do they get a free pass? At minimum, it is willful negligence.
Reminded .. the City Manager of Tuttle and CentOS (Score:1)
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That manager was fired (resignation given under duress was accepted) within 18 months when his contract came up for renewal. Seems they didn't think he was competent for some reason: https://www.oklahoman.com/arti... [oklahoman.com]
Re:Reminded .. the City Manager of Tuttle and Cent (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh, wow, that 2006 story got better when the manager decided to respond to The Register: https://www.theregister.com/20... [theregister.com] I totally missed this story at the time! :-)
Not a vulnerability (Score:2)
Why are SSNs accepted... (Score:2)
which for some reason was run by the state's Highw (Score:1)
The Missouri State Highway Patrol Division is responsible for law enforcement on state highways and waterways, criminal investigations, criminal laboratory analysis, motor vehicle, and commercial vehicle inspections, boat inspections, and public education about safety issues.
sorry, its slashdot
ACAB or some other dumb hippie leftist bullshit.
Real editors get answers (Score:4, Informative)
...which for some reason was run by the state's Highway Patrol...
The reason is that the Missouri Highway Patrol is a division of the state's Department of Public Safety and in addition to enforcing traffic laws on state roadways, acts as the statewide police agency.
List of state police agencies in the United States [wikipedia.org], among which is the Missouri Highway Patrol and, in fact, a number of other agencies whose names contain the phrase "Highway Patrol". I think in the olden days, that phrase sounded friendlier than "State Police" which conjured up images of authoritarian dictatorships.
Also in the olden days, before we killed the daily community newspaper, those small-town papers served the purpose of training people to do basic editing and newsgathering.
This "hack" was being used for criminal activities (Score:2)
Look for this same "flaw" in other red states too.
Democracy vs. professional training (Score:2)