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Dutch MP Fined For Ethical Hacking

Posted by Soulskill on from the dutch-politicians-apparently-have-skills dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Dutch Member of Parliament (MP) Henk Krol was fined 750 (US$1,000) by the district court of Oost-Brabant on Friday for breaking and entering the system of the Dutch medical laboratory Diagnostics for You. Krol said he entered the system as an ethical hacker to show that it was easy to access and download confidential medical information. Krol, leader of the Dutch 50plus party, accessed the systems of the laboratory with a login and password he had obtained from a patient of the clinic, who in turn had overheard the information at the laboratory from a psychiatrist that worked there ... In April last year, Krol used the login information to enter the company's Web server and subsequently viewed and downloaded medical files of several patients. He did this to prove how easy it was to get access to the systems, according to the ruling (PDF in Dutch).'"

8 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Showoff Gets Off Easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So this putz uses a stolen password to steal confidential documents. He claims that this is ethical hacking?

    He's not exposing some inherent weakness in the system, he's using a stolen password to steal documents to showoff his "1337" skillz.

    1. Re:Showoff Gets Off Easy by Teun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, the worry is how far he could get with just one user ID.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    2. Re:Showoff Gets Off Easy by plalonde2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And on top of it, the fine is reasonable for what amounts to civil disobedience. It might or might not have been the way to protest, but the fine isn't insane, either way.

    3. Re:Showoff Gets Off Easy by Kaenneth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Three words:

      Two Factor Authentication.

      A little bit of eavesdropping should not allow unlimited remote access to others medical records.

  2. Thats how civilized countries do it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No 10 million euro claims for damages, no 15 year sentences for terrorism and definitely no FOX news fear-mongering the ignorant masses.

  3. Re:It's not Ethical at all... by Fuzzums · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In my opinion if you report a system with confidential information to be insecure that would be ethical.
    If the owner of the system hired him, then it would have been his job. That's something different.

    --
    Privacy is terrorism.
  4. Re:He's an MP. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't think anyone capable of pulling this off could become a senator or congressman in the US.

  5. Re:He's an MP. by russotto · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now, if you want to strip the political power away, sure - in the US, he'd probably be prosecuted to the fullest extent the law could be twisted in abuse to.

    We don't have to guess. We know what happens. He'd have been driven to suicide, or if he didn't, branded a felon and thrown in federal prison.