Feds Admit Error In McDanel Security Case

prostoalex writes "US federal prosecutors have admitted that an error was made in prosecuting Bret McDanel under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. McDanel discovered a security vulnerability on his former employer's server, and seeing that little efforts were put into repairing it, sent out e-mails to the customers of Tornado Development Inc. After the prosecution revised the court materials, they admitted there was no proof that McDanel intended to impair the system's integrity."

Comments

Re:OK people

[Seth Finklestein]

As a lawyer, I can tell you that civil suits require damages of some kind. Mr. McDanel caused no damages of any kind to the servers. He did not take down any machines. He did not post exploits to the Internet. Simply put, he is a perfectly harmless individual.

Frankly, I believe that the justice system fears individuals with computer knowledge. The judges presiding today are the same ignoramuses who have been on the bench since the 1970s. Now, I've been using computers since the 1980s (that's right, I said *80s*) and I can tell you a thing or two about judges.

1. They wouldn't know a computer from the back of their hand.
2. Anyone who "hacks" a computer can crack into national security, in their "opinions."

Putting a man like Cheng in charge of justice is like putting Michael Sims in charge of a web site. You just don't do it.