2 Hackers are suing the Iowa sheriff who imprisoned them for pentesting

msn.com

50 points·justinclift··5 comments

For more on this case see Episode 59 on Darknet Diaries: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/59/

On the one hand, they are lucky they didn't get shot. On the other the people who signed off on the physical access test probably are to blame, the sheriff answers to the county voters not a bureaucrat with printer. He probably should have followed up, but they did infact break they law and though it would have defeated the purpose of the pen test the sheriff, and city law enforcement should have been informed.

> but they did infact break they law

But they in fact did not break the law.

It’s not illegal to pick locks and/or to go inside buildings. It might sometimes be illegal to do so without permission, but in this case it was really clear that they in fact had permission.

It was authorized by the operators of the building. The pentesters literally did everything by the book. Even the responding police officers were about the let them go, until the Sheriff arrived. If anything this highlights the criminal justice system reform needed to deal with bad LEO through a system like mandatory self insurance.

> mandatory self insurance

Will never happen, because then the higher ups can't as easily force underlings or a smaller/regional department to commit fuckery.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com