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Judge Refuses To Convict Hacker

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the he-said-he-was-sorry dept.

Jake96 writes "A judge in Wellington, New Zealand, declined to convict a man who ran an unrequested security audit on a bank's phone systems and was charged with 'intentionally accessing a computer system knowing he was not authorized to,' according to an article in the New Zealand Herald."

5 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Speedy Justice by Snad · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is not a bank, as such. It's not like you waltz down to the Reserve Bank to make a deposit of your weekly wage cheque.

    I believe it's more like the Federal Reserve in the States, though the RBNZ is 100% government owned.

    So basically this guy decided to do some "security analysis" of a governmental body, not some penny-ante savings & loan branch in the backwoods. So yes, the police are going to be on to it pretty damn quick.

  2. Not just once by shack420 · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is actually the second time this has happened in NZ this year...

    "Sahil Gupta, the second man charged over the Telecom voicemail hacking incident in April, walked free from an Auckland court last week.

    Gupta was charged along with a teenager who cannot be identified for legal reasons. The teen was charged with unauthorised access of a computer system and pleaded guilty. Gupta was charged under the same section of the Crimes Act and faced up to two years in prison.

    However two justices of the peace discharged Gupta saying there was no case to answer after a hearing in the Auckland District Court on Wednesday."

    more @ http://www.crime-research.org/news/21.01.2006/1770 / and all over ya google.

  3. Re:No surprise by spagetti_code · · Score: 4, Informative

    As an inhabitant of NZ, I think you need some lessons in Geography.

    Australia is where the convicts were sent.
    Colonists chose to go to NZ.
    Australia is 2.5 hours away from NZ by airplane - i.e. a *long* way.

    And we've got the Bledisloe Cup
    and Australia doesn't. :-)

    You need to spend some time with Google Maps.

  4. Re:No surprise by ThePeices · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Thats what you get when you ship off all your criminals to a newly discovered island (or is it a continent?) and come back a hundred years later to look at their justice system."

    What the hell are you on about, read TFA, this happened in NZ, not Australia.

  5. Re:Can this set a precedent here in the States? by badfish99 · · Score: 5, Informative

    How about the UK: see for example here

    Also, in the UK someone was fined £1000 and lost his job just for typing in a URL with "../../.." on the end of it. Story here.