Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site • Hacker News Board

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#141

Post by rndgermandude » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

abvdasker wrote: post #47

I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…

>I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is net detrimental to society.

I am not quite sure how much of this is anti-science as opposed to anti-college.

Colleges, not science or education in general, have been at the heart of the culture war, especially in the US, and have been viewed by many - not just right/Republicans, but centrists and moderates as well - recently as problematic when it comes to things like mandatory overreaching PC culture, title IX kangaroo courts and "rape classes", safe spaces (and racial segregation of dorms to provide such safe spaces, for example), coddling of students, college educational quality and how it correlates with college profits (including minor scandals of celeb parents bribing their kids into good schools), racial bias in admissions, speech codes, left-leaning faculty, etc, etc, etc... The list of areas that people receive as "problematic" is long.

I am not here to judge all these accusations on merit, just wanted to point out that they exist in the wider public debate (no matter the level of truth to them), and this is what may have swung the polls a lot more than a general anti-science stance.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#142

Post by jablongo » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

abvdasker wrote: post #47

I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…

Conservatives say that about college not necessarily because they have a disdain for education and learning, but because they think colleges have become a breeding ground for a dangerous type of bourgeois identity politics. I'm not taking any sides here just pointing out that the justification for rejecting higher education may not be coming from an anti-science perspective. That said, Parsons appears to be an idiot.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#143

Post by cornhole » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

sillysaurusx wrote: post #99

abvdasker wrote: post #47

I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…

Please don't make this a partisan issue. I live in Missouri. I've voted for Republicans in the past. You're alienating people like me from being on your side. It doesn't matter that you're probably right. It comes across as you posting this to make yourself feel good, and holy moly the sense of superiority from your camp needs a chill pill. Parson is evil. I'll be doing my duty as a citizen and trying to vote him out…

why should we have to coddle you

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#144

Post by jonathanwallace » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

I served in the Georgia legislature during a portion of a similar story. Without a doubt, the calculations throughout the story were political not technical.

In the Georgia version, the technical details of the exposed information in the Secretary of State's office were facepalmingly simple (misconfigured apache directives) yet the story dragged on politically for years.

Quickly, a hired security researcher for a corporate client found all registered voters info and instructional pdfs with credentials for the elections system publicly indexed by google. They responsibly disclosed. The apache configuration was updated to "use encryption" (moved from http to https) but still left the info indexed by google over https vs. http. Eventually, this information became public.

The state attempted to prosecute the security researcher but found no state statutes they could use. They then used this incident as a base to create a bill to criminalize the security researcher's actions.

As a state rep, I worked very hard to push back on a bad bill spawned by the incident that would've criminalized responsible disclosure.

Only due to bi-partisan efforts from technically versed people were we able to get the Governor at the time to veto the bill.

https://www.snopes.com/ap/2017/06/15/researcher-finds-georgi...

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/comp...

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#145

Post by 999900000999 » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

zz865 wrote: post #67

abvdasker wrote: post #47

I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…

I think college is a good thing, but right now I think its 70% of kids go to college which is a complete waste of time and money for most of them.

For me going to college was about getting away from my horrible family. They still managed to screw me over and prevent me from finishing my last year of schooling, but my life was forever made better by the distance.

The class stratification in society is absolutely intense, if you're coming from a bad family you just need to get away from them as soon as you can. I made the mistake of not estranging myself from my own family much sooner. If I could change one thing about the way America works I'd eliminate the requirement for parental involvement when it comes to getting financial aid.

If your parents like to beat you up, you should be able to just walk out when you're 18 and get help to go to school. But that's not the system now. Aside from a small handful of exceptions which are painfully difficult to get, you're basically on your own. I think in Europe everyone just gets help to go to college so this isn't an issue there.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#146

Post by aeturnum » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

dijit wrote: post #103

sli wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole "college = liberal arts majors" is a wildly reductive argument and is extremely common among the types that OP is referring to. It's pretty disheartening to see it repeated here.

Do you have any actual numbers on BA vs BC (or BA vs BSc)? There's value in the arts, but I think it is overrepresented in universities.

> I think it is overrepresented in universities

What would over-represented mean in this case? Here's a graph[1] of bachelors' degrees granted in various fields - the social science are grouped with history and are not particularly popular.

I'm personally somewhat mystified when people talk about degrees like they're ice cream flavors. I've met people with a wide variety of aptitude and interest and energy and while I think that anyone can get any degree, I do think we each individually have proclivities and talents. Even if I wanted to double the number of STEM majors, I suspect that many of the people who have chosen not to be STEM majors did that because they liked their chosen major better.

Edit: For what it is worth, I do think we could use many more people in the trades. I also think that people going to trade school should have the option to get the same "gen ed" college curriculum that people going to college get. It might help the idea that trade work is lesser (which, of course, it is not).

[1] http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cta#4

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#147

Post by charonn0 » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

lancemurdock wrote: post #125

abvdasker wrote: post #47

I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…

I suppose I fall in the a republican camp so i'll bite. College is too expensive for what it gives. You gain a ton in maturity, soft skill building but unless you're in a STEM major, the material does not prepare you for the real world. Depending on what my kid wants to study, I will not be encouraging college. So much journalism is so insanely biased. I respectfully disagree to anyone who thinks Biden is treated the…

> I respectfully disagree to anyone who thinks Biden is treated the same as Trump was.

People respect Biden more than they respect Trump. This isn't Biden's fault, nor the fault of the people.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#148

Post by abvdasker » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

anovikov wrote: post #62

abvdasker wrote: post #47

I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…

I consider myself a liberal, and i agree with the point that college is net detrimental to society. It makes people waste their best years, teaches them mainly, useless stuff, barely breaks even in terms of lifetime earnings, and makes people bitter because they feel they are not valued by society the way they believe they should. This world needs a lot more new plumbers than new liberal arts majors. It is the societ…

The very same article I linked to suggests yours is a minority view among those who have attended college:

> When it comes to their own experiences with higher education, an earlier Center survey found that the vast majority of college graduates (from both two- and four-year institutions) say college was useful for them in terms of helping them grow personally and intellectually (62% say it was very useful in this regard, 31% say it was somewhat useful). Large majorities also say it was useful in opening doors to job opportunities (53% say very useful, 29% say somewhat) and in helping them develop specific skills and knowledge that could be used in the workplace (49% very, 35% somewhat).

I think the cost of higher ed is an enormous societal problem which leads some to feel embittered towards the system as a whole for good reason. But it's important to not throw the baby out with the bathwater and to separate the ballooning cost from the education itself.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#149

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

comrh wrote: post #112

mcguire wrote: post #54

The Post-Dispatch needs to act to force the State Police investigation forward, or the whole incident will shortly be forgotten, except for the allegations. Perhaps a daily column with updates on it. Perhaps a libel case?

I agree, I know it's a high bar but doesn't this fit the purpose of libel laws? "Under United States law, libel generally requires five key elements: the plaintiff must prove that the information was published, the plaintiff was directly or indirectly identified, the remarks were defamatory towards the plaintiff's reputation, the published information is false, and that the defendant is at fault." Seems to fit all of…

[deleted]

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#150

Post by arcticbull » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

hnaccy wrote: post #131

sillysaurusx wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't make this a partisan issue. I live in Missouri. I've voted for Republicans in the past. You're alienating people like me from being on your side. It doesn't matter that you're probably right. It comes across as you posting this to make yourself feel good, and holy moly the sense of superiority from your camp needs a chill pill. Parson is evil. I'll be doing my duty as a citizen and trying to vote him out…

>It doesn't matter that you're probably right. I guess reality does have a well known liberal bias :)

I really enjoyed Colbert's white house correspondents dinner back in 2006. That isn't what you were referring to is it? [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X93u3anTco