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It sounds like Patterson Dental deserves as much blame as the FBI, if not more, because it sounds like they were the ones pressing charges and motivating prosecution in the first place. Also, why aren't they being charged with what is almost certainly a HIPAA violation?
The FBI used to be cool when it was all Agent Mulder. Now it's all Cigarette Smoking Man and lame.
The FBI is going to have a hell of a time arguing that accessing a public FTP server with no password protection is a crime.
I believe that it is still considered unauthorized access even if they don't have a password set up. I think it goes back to law that existed before computers where if you entered someones home without permission you can't simply argue that there wasn't a lock on the door. Edit: ProAm above reminded me of the Andrew Auernheimer case that was nearly identical to this and was resolved as I describe.
It is more like having a store with lights on and an open sign then arresting someone for breaking an entering when they go inside.
> Defense attorney Tor Ekeland, who represented Auernheimer in the federal court case in New Jersey, has offered to help Shafer ... Based on his website it appears that "Tor" is actually his given name. What an odd coincidence.
Unless there's a lot left out of this article, I wouldn't think most "unauthorized computer access" suspects tend to be heavily armed. (Particularly if the company actually reported the context of the "crime", including the fact that he had voluntarily notified them of the problem.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe that it is still considered unauthorized access even if they don't have a password set up. I think it goes back to law that existed before computers where if you entered someones home without permission you can't simply argue that there wasn't a lock on the door. Edit: ProAm above reminded me of the Andrew Auernheimer case that was nearly identical to this and was resolved as I describe.
Yea.. but a site on the internet is more akin to a store than someone's home. It's completely normal to walk into someone's store.
It sounds like Patterson Dental deserves as much blame as the FBI, if not more, because it sounds like they were the ones pressing charges and motivating prosecution in the first place. Also, why aren't they being charged with what is almost certainly a HIPAA violation?
If patterson dental (and I say if since we don't really know) is behind him getting arrested, I hope all their patients find out about the details of this and they go out of business. If nothing else they should be charged with HIPAA violations.
So, the chance of them going "out of business" is pretty slim. It's entirely possible that dentists unfortunate enough to have chosen Eaglesoft will get to pay some HIPAA fines, however.
I know this is only tangentially related to the HN content here, but does anyone have a sense of why the FBI would choose to respond to this sort of case with a dozen agents and weapons drawn? Rather than, say, two guys politely ringing the bell and asking him to come with them? Unless there's a lot left out of this article, I wouldn't think most "unauthorized computer access" suspects tend to be heavily armed. (Part…
The rationalization is that serving warrants can sometimes be risky, so why take the chance? It's in law enforcement's best interest to err on the side of caution: better to scare the crap out of people than get shot without warning. Which is why the government and the courts are supposed to balance LE's concerns with the rights of the people.