Comment by superdude | Hacker News Reader

Comment by superdude | Hacker News Reader

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One of my buddies worked in the accounting department at our state government. He needed to get a bunch of documents from another agency (like hundreds every month) to process claims. Well this other agency requires everyone to go through their website and download each document one at a time. They said it was to prevent abuse. For some reason they couldn't just send a batch of them to us, even a fellow state agency. So I made a scraper to download an entire month at a time. I figure it was a webforms site because it was filled with postbacks and viewstates which made it a bit of a pain, but the ridiculous thing was the CAPTCHA code:

<input name="actualSpoofValue" type="hidden" id="actualSpoofValue" value="TFU3P">

and TFU3P was the CAPTCHA code!

Isn't that one ambitious DA away from being a felony these days?

Batman: You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. I can do those things. Because I'm not a hero, not like Dent. I killed those people. That's what I can be.

Lt. James Gordon: No, no, you can't! You're not! Batman: I'm whatever Gotham needs me to be.

[cut to Gordon at Dent's funeral]

Lt. James Gordon: A hero. Not the hero we deserved but the hero we needed. Nothing less than a knight. Shining.

[Gordon is shown on top of Gotham Central. An axe is in his hand. He is being watched by an assortment of reporters and police officers. The next lines are heard in voiceover]

Lt. James Gordon: They'll hunt you.

Batman: You'll hunt me. You'll condemn me. Set the dogs on me.

No, it was publicly accessible information from a public-facing website.

Since when was that a defence?

You circumvented COMPUTER SECURITY on a GOVERNMENT WEBSITE. This is how the judge will see it.

tell that to weev

no, as I understand, that part alone would be a misdemeanor (and therefore, unlikely to be worth pursuing) under the CFAA. the alleged intent to sell/defraud is what made it a potential felony.

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