more on Perl guru Chip Salzenberg sued, home raided [priv]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Glenn Fleishman <glenn () glennf com>
Date: July 1, 2005 11:25:19 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Perl guru Chip Salzenberg sued, home raided [priv]


I haven't seen it mentioned here, but 12 years ago, perl guru Randal  
Schwartz
had a similar experience and was found guilty 10 years ago. In trying  
to bring
it to the attention of his then-contract employer Intel that they had  
incredibly
weak security that jeopardized his business, he was made an example  
of. There
was no evidence at trial that his intent was anything but to improve  
Intel's
security. Nonetheless, he was found guilty under Oregon law, paid  
hundreds of
thousands in legal fees and recompense (for Intel to fix their broken  
systems,
apparently), and is an ex-felon.

John S. Quarterman wrote this summary back in 1995 as part of Matrix  
News:
<http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~frincke/research/security/articles/ 
schwartz2.txt>

Randal never served a day in jail: he received five years of  
probation with 90
days to be served at the end, but, as many of us know, he's an  
exemplary citizen
and the jail time was waived. I and a number of other folks wrote  
letters to the
outgoing governor of Oregon a few years ago asking him to pardon  
Randal for a
non-crime -- a crime of good intentions with bad documentation and  
permission,
let's say -- but the governor demurred.

Chip's experience should remind white hats and gray hats that it's  
very easy to
cry "computer crime" and have local, state, and federal authorities  
go a little
crazy. Chip probably should have consulted or retained an attorney  
before
sending the whistle-blower letter, although it's easy to see that he  
thought
forthright truth would win.
--
Glenn Fleishman
seattle, washington
work and home: glennf.com
wireless data news: wifinetnews.com
email sent to me will not be quoted unless you allow me
email sent from me is intended to be private unless noted otherwise


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/