Fergie's Tech Blog

Naive 'Hacker' Escapes Punishment

John Leyden writes on The Register:

Here's a cautionary tale for would-be penetration testers: get permission from a bank before you try to bill them for helping to identify and fix the security short-comings of their services. New Zealander Gerasimos Macridis, 39, learnt that lesson the hard way after his attempts to help the country's Reserve Bank in improving its telephone banking systems resulted in a court appearance.

Macridis told Wellington District Court that he was surprised that his attempts to bill the bank for unsolicited services ended up with the police, and not a cheque, arriving on his doorstep. Macridis was more guilty of naivety then mendacity, the court heard.

posted by Fergie @ 9/27/2006 11:51:00 AM