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Newspaper "Hacks Into" Aussie Gov't Website By Guessing URL
thelamecamel writes "According to the New South Wales state government, the Sydney Morning Herald, a local newspaper, attacked the government's 'website firewall security' for two days to research a recent story. The affected government minister said that the website was accessed 3,727 times, and that this is 'akin to 3,727 attempts to pick the lock of a secure office and take highly confidential documents.' The matter has been referred to the police, who are now investigating. But how did the paper 'hack' the website? They entered the unannounced URL. Security by obscurity at its finest."
"Bang the Table".
Methinks we have found a new tag for articles about politicians who are bit by their own stupid security practices. Release Word file with revision history still in it? Bang the table. Secret government data stolen because of malware you downloaded from a porn site? Bang the table.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
There, fixed that for you, Mr. Minister.
There, fixed that for you.
The affected government minister said that the website was accessed 3,727 times, and that this is 'akin to 3,727 attempts to turn their own head in a busy, public marketplace and look at a billboard.'
Don't want people reading your web site? Put it behind a login. Anything else is just sophistry to cover up incompetence. Web sites are advertisements first and foremost. The whole point is to make it possible for as many people as possible to read your thing. If you want to exclude certain people from being able to view it, then you shouldn't just put a billboard up where you think it's out of the way and hope nobody notices, you should put it behind a door which requires a key to get in.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
The problem with that analogy is that passwords are by default 2 factor authentication: you need a username and a password.
That's not really the case with a url. A better analogy would be walking around a building on a public street, and looking in windows. It's legal, but morally suspect.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
I wouldn't call putting something up on the internet, completely out in the open with no protection whatsoever, and then simply hoping no one will find it because you didn't announce its presence, "essentially a password".
If the internet is a forest and I protect my valuables by sitting them underneath a tree far from civilization and tell no one they're there, should I be mad if someone looking around the forest for valuables takes them all? No. Either you don't put your valuables in the forest or you put them in a big honking safe that no one can break into or walk off with.
It's like getting an unlisted telephone number and using your secret plans as your answering machine message.
Nothing like entering without permission.