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Microsoft Drops Blaster Author's Fine
bevo noted that Microsoft has dropped their fine against the author of the Blaster worm that DDoS'd Microsoft's web sites and hijaacked 50,000 computers. 225 hours instead of a 500k fine. $2200/hour seems like a good deal to me ;)
Luckily the community service cannot involve computers, otherwise this guy will get away lightly by cleaning up roughly 50 spyware/virus-infected Windows machines to clock up 225 hours.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said the sentence reflected that although he was 18 at the time of the attack, his maturity level was much younger than that. She also said his home life contributed to the problem.
Damn, that precedent means virtually everyone here on /. is immune from prosecution. For anything. Especially since "mom's basement" probably qualifies as a "home life".
John
Depends on what the community service involves!
I, for one welcome our new $2200/h overlords...
How can MS "fine" someone? Are they really that close to the government now that they can hand out their own judgement and punishment?
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
... by replacing himself by a shell script?
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
This was the guy who modified the Blaster worm. The original author never got caught.
Great! I bet his community service will be fixing Windows computers. Talk about irony!
Billy boy dropped the fine was that he saw some of himself in the boy, totally ripping off someone elses work, rebranding it and sending out the door. It was just a variant, wasn't it?
"There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
Life just ins't fair....
'mmmmmmmmm.... forbidden donut'
... system administration for MS clients?
Please shoot me instead.
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
The article also contained this:
Jeffrey Lee Parson, of Minnesota, was sentenced this year to 18 months in prison and 10 hours of community service.
What the hell is the point of a day's worth of community service when you are also serving 18 months in prison!?
"Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
...gardening! getting to know the REAL bugs out there!
Three rings for the Elven-kings in the sky
Why wouldn't they want to punish this person? At the very least they should hold him accountable for loss business (although how much could they loose, really?) All in all a more understanding MS than we've seen in the past. bo
bad_outlook
--
Is this vague enough for you?
There was this wonderful game in the 30's that came out, and Milton Bradley ended up buying the game. I think it was like "monopole" or something.
You can't stop worms and trojans. But why should your operating system take those extra steps to be helpful to script kiddies by having insecure ports open and a vulnerable RPC protocol? Hackers love Microsoft Windows.
To all the people screaming "What, MS is part of the government now?":
The judge determined that the convicted owed MS damages of about $500,000. MS at their own discretion opted to allow him to to do community service in lieu of cash. As long as the agreement is acceptable to both parties, the judge will generally go with it.
this is getting old and so are you
blog
What a great company Microsoft is!
Moof.
So MS has been given judicial powers to grant clemency now?
Yes. They first used it for this case.
Well, at least this kid didn't get a JOB offer from Microsoft. Seems he wasn't quite as lucky as the kid who hacked into T-Mobile and monitored Secret Service messages, only to get a job offer from them once he was caught...
...maybe when he matures and is looking towards real work, he'll consider a lucrative career in hacking government agencies, seems like breaking the law is rewarded nowadays.
It's not time for the tinfoil hats- yet. Microsoft isn't so close to the government that they can choose his sentence, but they could, if they wanted, ask the judge to reduce the sentence to certain terms that they think are fair.
Remember though, IANAL
I think it'd be great for this guy to get out in the sun and clean up graffiti! Maybe it'll build his character enough that he'll realize that making worms to smash Microsoft PCs isn't a cool thing to do- or is it?
Silence is golden... and duct tape is silver.
I'm glad you think that way. Tell me where you live and break in to your home. Its your fault for have breakable glass windows or whatever other vulnerability I exploit to get in, so I shouldn't be punished if I get caught.
There's something to this -- if MS were to receive some form of compensation, wouldn't there be some backlash from those that were hit by this guy's Blaster variant? Perhaps even some sort of implied responsibility on Microsoft's part (EULA be damned)?
Then again, I'm sure this was something that was already fixed and the truly vulnerable ones were those that hadn't patched (some with valid reasons nonetheless).
Just saying that it's possible that if MS took money for this, others may start looking to MS to pay for THEIR damages.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
It's too bad that TFA completely fails to even provide a hint that this is what it is about. In fact, it is impossible to determine what you state from TFA or any of the links within it.
What happens anyway in the US legal system if someone is fined a $500,000 when they have a few hundred bucks to their name, and no or low income?
An oversimplified answer is they file for bankruptcy protection, lose virtually all their posessions besides their primary residence, means of transport to work and other essentials and personal effects of no monetary value, need to have all significant expenses in the future approved by a judge and so on till they emerge from bankruptcy. Then they spend about 10 years unable to get a credit card or bank loan because their credit rating is so low.
YM
Most of the media doesn't realize that a large part of the fault lies with Microsoft Windows...and Microsoft does nothing to disabuse them of that ignorance.
HTH!
"I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib
I think it'd be great for this guy to get out in the sun and clean up graffiti! Maybe it'll build his character enough that he'll realize that making worms to smash Microsoft PCs isn't a cool thing to do- or is it?
...
Well, Paul Allen just got $20 million in tax breaks according to The Stranger (local weekly paper) and The Weekly (other local weekly paper), so
However, if they want to clean up graffiti, we have an underpass at Bridgeway N that can be repainted to remove the graffiti over here in Seattle.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Really. They just got some good press. And it is better to have good press worldwide that to have some teen own you $0,5M which he probably would never pay to them at all...
Helping Bill Gates with his first Gentoo install..
http://request-header.info
The story was really about an MS demo at an author's convention of a new consumer laser cannon that barely missed hitting Stephen King when the targeting system bluescreened.
In cases involving damages, the victim (in the case referenced, Microsoft) is allowed to request leniency or harsher penalties: The judge ruling on the case is *NOT* required to accede to such requests.
Take the 90-Day Challenge! http://rwmurker.bodybyvi.com/
RTFA. Parsons was to have paid the $500,000 as restitution to Microsoft because the worm launched a rather feeble DDOS attack on Microsoft's websites. As such, Microsoft has the authority to waive that, or to make arrangements. Also, with no job, assets, or future, Parsons would have had no means to make the restitution payment, and would likely have had it dismissed in bankruptcy proceedings. Microsoft would never have seen a dime. Instead, Microsoft gets to look charitable and magnanimous while the kid gets to avoid bankruptcy. Sounds like a win-win deal to me.
bance.net
Not superior software, superior service plans formerly but now only the market presence created by its history and effective monopoly status in the US keep the firm gaining income with any advantage over other PC software firms.
Not to mention community service will help out the community instead of putting money into Microsoft's wallet.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
Why do people keep making this ridiculous argument? If I leave the door to my home unlocked, it may be stupid of me, but that doesn't make anyone who comes in and steals stuff any less of a criminal. If walk around a bad neighborhood with a wad of cash in my hand and get mugged, that makes me an idiot, but anyone who mugs me is still a criminal.
You might be able to protect yourself better by using non-MS software, but that does not mitigate the actions of the criminals who create destructive worms and viruses in any way.
This kid still has to do 18 months in prison! 18 months! 13,128 hours! (linked from the same site)
18 months is almost 10% of the time this kid has even been on the planet!
Microsoft just helped him out by letting him live his life once he gets out of prison instead of being in debt for the next 40 years.
I bet it's extremely hard for a convicted felon to work off a $500,000 debt.
--
Fairfax Underground: For residents of Fairfax County and Northern Virginia
A better analogy would be if I made locks which, because of poor design choices, could all be easily opened with a screwdriver.
Then somebody breaks into 50,000 houses because they all used my inadequate locks.
The only fault of the homeowner would be trusting my product too much... but you can't really blame them for that either, since a lock manufacturer should know a thing to two about security!
=Smidge=
Show me where Microsoft makes the claim that their software is impregnable
Microsoft is getting pretty big and powerful and can push the DOJ around, but I don't think they're yet in the position to fine people.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Looking at their webpage I noticed both IBM and Apple are members. Where did you find out that Microsoft is the biggest beneficiary, do you have any links? Or are you just pulling it out of your ass? And what power does the BSA hold?
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
Only in some states like Florida, I think. In others they can still repo your house and auction it.
I was hearing something on the OJ Simpson trial the other day which was being rehashed now that the lawyer died. AFAICT OJ "Magic Gloves" Simpson moved to Florida after the $30M civil suit he lost to avoid having his NFL pension garnished to pay for the judgement, and I think that Florida law also forbids your "primary residence" from being r00ted.
I might be wrong though.
It may be a good deal to the criminal in this case, but not to the rest of us computer users who have to put up with this type of worthless scum on a daily basis. If all the worm/virus/adware/spyware/hijack/root kit etc. writers and those who use their products to infect the rest of us were to disappear tomorrow, I, for one, wouldn't miss them for a moment. Life is tough enough already without humans preying on other humans.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
but if door95, door98, doorME were all well known as pieces of shit then there is some fault with the person buying doorXP
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Install it and watch it say "More Secure!"
Come to think about it, every version of Windows since Windows 98 has said that during the install.
Is that NONE of the numbers are powers of 2. That is probably the most sick and twisted thing you can do to a geek. At the very least, the judge should have presented them in hexadecimal.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
...they should make him apologize, in person, to everyone affected by the worm.
I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
You're stupider than I thought. If you're wearing a bulletproof vest and kevlar helmet on a battle field you're more secure than if you're not. That doesn't mean you're invulnerable and should go stand in front of the main gun of a tank.
Writing a virus takes a fair bit of know-how... the article states he was immature and had a bad family life.
Maybe its just an example of a bored kid doing something with bragging rights.
Immature or not, there was intent and dedication, and if he's smart enough to write and deploy, he was smart enough to know it was wrong.
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
Well, this is the IT world, so he obviously won't be getting Any Respect
My point was more that the media's error here isn't an act of malicious omission so much as technical ignorance. In my opinion, anyway.
That's one topic. It has nothing to do with whether or not people are responsible for the security of their own machines.
"I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib
They've gotten it wrong from the beginning. He's not the author. He grabbed a copy of the virus, modified some text, and let it loose again, infecting computers that were probably already going to be infected by the original. For that he gets 18 months.
Just like how Bush has been accurately criticized for capitalizing on fear to push his agenda, many companies are now benefiting from fear in this context. Hell yes it was a bitch to deal with Blaster and friends, but I got paid cash money to remove it from a lot of people's computers. One time got some ass from it. So to those of us who are fans of capitalism and consumerism, or ass maybe, this is a Good Thing, and the economy has been helped more than it has been hurt by crap like this.
Apparently it's 10 months, but there was an error that got perpetuated.
I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and dial again.
I always thought that a good community service activity was shoveling elephant poop at the zoo. 225 hours of poo shoveling would give this person some perspective as to the aguish they have caused! :-)
From TFA: Microsoft has granted clemency to the 19 year-old author
Normally, I would complain about slash-editors munging up a story, but this story is so farked its ridulous. The article makes it appear as if MS was ajudicating the proceedings in addition to the US District Judge.
The confusion is in the original article.
So, MS isn't going to try to extract several hundred thousand dollars from someone with no money or prospect of getting that sort of money, because it would cost more to hire a thug to shake down the punk than they would get. Hmmm.
See, MS can make a good decision on occasion...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I understand that we're actually talking about MSblast here, not Blaster or Nachi, but was the circulation really that low? I daresay that Blaster itself infected nearly 1/4 of student's PC's on our college campus alone. We never actually took data on it, but once it got on the network, the whole thing was down in a couple of hours.
Quite possibly. I'm not defending Microsoft. I'm arguing that just because Microsoft's software is buggy doesn't make mean that people who explot those bugs are any less culpable.
He can move to another country, this country is not the crux of civilization. Also he can get out of Mn, which is a nice state, but there are better places to be.
"Microsoft has granted clemency"
What power does Microsoft have to grant clemency? The court decideds guilt and sentences, including fines and remedies. I could see Microsoft declining restitution, but who gives Microsoft the power to decide whether a guilty party is punished by labor, rather than a fine?
--
make install -not war
...which is totally irrelevant to the original point. You're trying to force use to accept a false dichotomy.
People who exploit bugs: at fault.
People who make bugs to exploit: also at fault.
That simple enough? It can be both.
Back in the days when worms were an AI experiment and Core Wars were respectful contests, I would never have anticipated the morons who have made so many administrators' lives more hectic. I say he should be blinded and his hands cut off.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
I'm glad you think that way. Tell me where you live and break in to your home.
Well I don't know where you live, but most houses in Center City Philadelphia (USA) have bars on their windows. Not having them is foolish.
If someone yanked those bars off or the dead bolt on our door failed to work properly I would blame the contractor who installed them for crappy workmanship. (Unless of course I left the door unlocked or someone used a blow torch. If someon wanted in that bad... Well...)
The chances of catching a perp around here are slim to none. Think of the internet as the ghetto only everyone is banging on your doors 24/7.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Not many people know how to use DoorOSX or LinDoors, nor do they want to learn.
Illegal? Samir, This is America.
just check under /home :)
I think MS is the one that has ownership problems...who computer/documents is it really? "My Computer|Documents|whatever"...means "theirs" to MS....double so for anything under My Music that has DRM
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
a new worm has emerged which targets Linux exclusively. Reverse-engineering has thus far only revealed the string "!seineew era sreenigne xunil zes rekcah retsalB".
--
Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
"U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said the sentence reflected that although he was 18 at the time of the attack, his maturity level was much younger than that."
was she talking about Billy?
I wonder if the community service IS the job offer...he'll get to be M$' bitch for 7 months. If his job were to locate security holes in M$ software, that would certainly qualify as a community service.
Windows are a neccessary element of a house, but INSECURE windows are not.
They make windows that can survive getting a rock or brick thrown at them with minimal visual distortion.
Even if you don't do that, all home security systems have dirt cheap break sensors that go on all windows. Ours came standard with ten of them, and additional ones were a whole $1.50 each. You break a window, and you trigger the alarm, which not only sends in an emergency call, but also makes a lot of noise and attracts unwanted attention from the neighbors.
A better analogy would be a leaving all your windows and doors open with a sign on the lawn saying, "I'm not paying attention to what's going on, but I'm trusting nobody will come in my house while I'm gone."
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Firstly that's not true, because nobody advertises their open ports... blaster and the other worms probe addresses, look through address books etc. and run scans and probes to find vulnerable computers. Secondly, even if you did that, nobody who stals stuff from your home can use that as a defense. Its unlikely that the cops would spend any effort to find the thief, since you acted so stupidly, but if the person were caught somehow they're still culpable.
Microsoft did not impose those sentences. RTFA. A judge did. The "fine" was not a fine, it was restitution he was ordered to pay Microsoft. Microsoft has the right to suggest that the judge replace the damages with a community service sentence.
So are you some kind of hotshot that can get any computer up and going in a vew minutes to an hour? Well, any monkey can format and re-install or restore-from-ghost in very short order, but in my experience it is those technicians that people call "useless" when they get their "fixed" computers back without properly configured drivers and all their email and data since their last weekly backup wiped out (if the said user is swift enough to even do a weekly backup).
In the corporate world competent techies have made it easy for themselves. They probably deal with a fleet of identical Dells, each issues with a standard ghost image, scripts up the wazoo, something like Altris or other big brother software do roll out updates/config changes, etc etc etc.
OTOH, 4.5 hours to clean up a machine is actually a realistic high-range estimate when you are talking about some of the personal computers or PCs at mom-and-pop operations out there like "nerds on site" and the like must see. I imagine they see everything from PIIs to the latest screaming PIV from any number of builders out there, and some of them are probably slapped together with leftover components too. These users don't have an image to restore to--unless you count the "rescue CD" if they haven't managed to lose it...they might not have any OS install CD at all! And backups? HAH! I've found you're lucky to even have weekly backups. And no matter how trivial their files look, all these users want to save as much as possible. These users are also rather undisciplined in their own maintenance. The worms and viruses are one thing--prepare to spend some time getting rid of adware attached to weather bugs, comet cursors, chat smileys and "free" P2P programs.
In any case, if you average it out you might spend 2 hours per machine. I'd say that for how much damage Blaster-variants caused this guy got off lightly--even including the hours he will spend in jail. I suppose, though, that suing someone who is broke for a half-million is pretty pointless. I DO like the idea of making the guy shovel elephant poo for a month as a substitute.
I do try to be optimistic though--one good thing is that this whole Blaster debacle brought to light the security crisis in Microsoft products. To this day, an unpatched win2k or pre-sp2 winxp machine will become infected within minutes when hooked up directly to a typical high-speed internet connection. It seems unfortunate that some jackass had to pull a stunt like Blaster before anything serious was done about security at MS.
Firstly, look up the term "analogy" sometime.
Secondly, let me see you put your money where your mouth is. Give me your checking account number and routing transit number and let me do some so rewriting of 0's and 1's of my own.
Or you can take it straight from the horses mouth [search for apple]. Sure looks like they do a lot of work for Apple. If we compared Apples 622 documents to Microsofts 670 documents, they are pretty equal. And thats not a fair since Apple only has 3% market share.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
now he makes almost as much as gates does
Just because you stole my car doesn't mean you have to gloat about it.
I fail to see how that analogy is better. Windows isn't a lock, it's a platform for work, entertainment, and sadly the deployment of business infrastructure. It has things roughly equivalent to locks, safes, and other such mechanisms of securing resources but then so does your house.
Your house also has windows, which more often than not are quite capable of being used to gain entrance regardless of what sort of lock you happen to insert into your door.
Now your windows are there intentionally, whereas the flaws in Microsoft software that permit others to take use of your computer's resources are unintentional, but both the windows and those bugs are a natural consequence of practical human endeavor.
People don't typically buy security-grade windows, the building materials that their homes are constructed with are typically not very sturdy to persistent attack, and few people opt to not have windows because as it turns out fresh air and exposure to natural light are both highly-sought. Microsoft, too, chooses to make tradeoffs of practicality when offering their software for sale, and like someone buying a house, the consumer willingly purchases the product despite that it is not impregnable for practical reasons.
If some douchebag breaks into your house, regardless of how you choose to secure, even though you and the builder of your home are slightly responsible in that you chose cost over security, the real culpability lies with the intruder. They shouldn't be there, and pointing out that they're only there because your house isn't impregnable is no more insightful than saying that you can die because you're mortal.
To use the normal
Remember this, "property rights" exist only because of our social conventions. Have you ever seen two dogs sharing a bone? Among animals, property always goes to the stronger one that wants it. So, to have any rights to your property, you should follow social conventions. One of these conventions is that you should take reasonable steps to protect your property when the circumstances make it necessary.
You may sleep with open doors if you live in a farm somewhere, but not in a poor inner city neighborhood. Likewise, you must be sure to lock your system if you ever connect to the internet. If you don't do it, then you are guilty of the crime of creating an environment where cybercrime propagates.
Must be a machine spec'd out for Longhorn.
.
Again, dunno. Maybe I'm wrong. Comments?
I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
That's the first post in a while I haven't replied specifically to bitch. In fact, I'm not replying to say anything except well put, and we need a helluva lot more people like you on /.
We now have confirmed reports from an informed Orange County minister that Ethel is still an active communist.
Seriously douche, the AC has it right--even all of these IANAL's got it and you didn't. Perhaps R-ingTFA or even half the posts above you would've explained it so even you could understand it.
We now have confirmed reports from an informed Orange County minister that Ethel is still an active communist.
but nice UID.
ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
Microsoft might have noticed that hardly any 18 year olds are going to have $500,000 to actually pay the fines.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
How is Microsoft allowed to impose a fine on someone, or is the wording of this article simply incorrect? Last I looked, Microsoft was a business: and only government entities held any jurisdiction in the realm of legally imposable fines.
-Vendal Thornheart
1. Create a sloppy piece of software with bugs and security holes ...
2. Wait until a 19-year kid figures out how to do damage with it
3.
4. Profit!
Free unix account: freeshell.org
Both are losers. Darwin will win.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Well, Billy-Boy Gates seems to have some respect for him. Even though he's not clasified a criminal yet.
DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
I don't think that's the way it works here, but IANAL. In general, The Government exempts them selves from allowing people to relieve debts to them in bankruptcies for example defaulted student loans and such. Since The Government makes the laws, they get their $$$ one way or another.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
People like this are not left out in the cold for long. An individual who has done what this person has is very employable by large firms with lots of money, and no problems with paying someone who has been able to undermine most of the technical world with a simple mickey mouse virus. This guy isn't going to go hungry. he will seem to disappear but I promise you he will be in demand.
someone needs to fix that "author" of MSBlast, this kid didn't author anything. He downloaded a copy of it off the internet and changed two lines so that it would grab the worm from his server of choice.
MS should have offered him a job rather than going after him (like they usually do). Can't wait until some guy from China or some other country thet does not follow US legislation gets pissed of at MS. That would be one great day. Instead of keeping 50 layers on staff they can kick some of them out an pay for developers to FINALLY fix the problems with windows or rewrite the damn thing. Windows is the longest going industry joke by far.
but why didn't he just use an internet cafe? I think they would be great for spreading viruses etc., or do you need a passport to use them?
Tha-tha-tha-tha-that's all folks!
Beacause the pattern of 0's and 1's are probing (peeping into windows) and designed to unlawfually gain information such as credit card information (burgularly) or destroy the system (arson).
Even if I do leave my door unlocked and my windows don't have doors, you don't have the right to come in and take anything you want. You or viruses have no more right to my box.
If I really am talking out of my ass...explain it to me with respect so I'll at least pull my ears out to listen.
umm...boy, you sure missed the point on this thread.
If I really am talking out of my ass...explain it to me with respect so I'll at least pull my ears out to listen.
And let's suppose a burgular went under the house and up through the floor, perhaps through the stink pipe and up through your toilet, perhaps when coming thru the floor they were able to use a crowbar and hammer yet bypasses the security alarm on the DoorXP (btw, this tactic works on DoorLinux, too). Should you still responsible for selling them the product "that doesn't work" because they didn't anticipate the creativity of the criminal?
If I really am talking out of my ass...explain it to me with respect so I'll at least pull my ears out to listen.
"... or someone used a blow torch. If someon wanted in that bad..."
That's just it, you have a lock on your door (authentication), but somebody broke a window or used a blow torch (brute force). You blame the lock manufacturer? What a waste of police time to go after your locksmith instead of the real perpetrator (the writer of the virus/worm/trojan/whatever).
If I really am talking out of my ass...explain it to me with respect so I'll at least pull my ears out to listen.
Nice tag. Very fair sounding.
If I really am talking out of my ass...explain it to me with respect so I'll at least pull my ears out to listen.
Um... One wouldn't have the locksmith thrown in jail, but rather taken to local court for losses.
I think the anology would be better like this (this is a fictional story):
A locksmith in the town sold these new fancy locks to all sorts of people through out the town claiming that they were secure and you would be safe. However a local theif found that if you just pushed on the door and jiggle the handle the door would come right open.
This ingenious theif tells his friends about the exploit and through the town they rob everyone blind. Later they are caught but have no money for the people since they spent it all on crack and heorin, but they faced ample jail time.
However the lock manufacture who claimed that their locks was secure was brought into civil court by the towns citizens on the fact that the locks themselves were not secure and were supposed to be such as that.
I think the point is that if you have a lock on your door you are not supposed to giggle it and it just fall apart. Yes it would be reasonable to say it's not the locksmiths fault if someone dig bring a large drill or a blowtorch, but if the locks were insecure to begin with then the locksmith is to blame as well as the perp. And the perp goes to jail and the locksmith is sued in civil court for monetary loss.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)