Actually fairly important...was: Re: /COMP/especially for Art Sowers

From: straydog (advocacy_at_sdf.lonestar.org)
Date: 02/03/05 

Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005 18:21:48 +0000

I am cross-posting to a few comp newsgroups in the interest of making more
people aware of this (see below)....

On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 goody@go.cc wrote:

> Date: 3 Feb 2005 04:11:39 -0800
> From: goody@go.cc
> Newsgroups: sci.research.careers
> Subject: /COMP/especially for Art Sowers
>
>
> http://www.boingboing.net/2005/01/27/jailed_for_using_a_n.html
>
> Thursday, January 27, 2005
> Jailed for using a nonstandard browser
>
> A Londonder made a tsnuami-relief donation using lynx -- a text-based
> browser used by the blind, Unix-users and others -- on Sun's Solaris
> operating system. The site-operator decided that this "unusual" event
> in the system log indicated a hack-attempt, and the police broke down
> the donor's door and arrested him. From a mailing list:
>
> For donating to a Tsunami appeal using Lynx on Solaris 10. BT [British
> Telecom] who run the donation management system misread an access log
> and saw hmm thats a non standard browser not identifying it's type and
> it's doing strange things. Trace that IP. Arrest that hacker.
>
> Armed police, a van, a police cell and national news later the police
> have gone in SWAT styley and arrested someone having their lunch.
>
> Out on bail till next week and preparing to make a lot of very bad PR
> for BT and the Police....
>
> So just goes to show if you use anything other than Firefox or IE and
> you rely on someone else to interogate access logs or IDS logs you too
> could be sitting in a paper suit in a cell :(
>
>

Thanks, "goody," for bringing this to light.

I checked this URL and its for real, and has a small update.

I have used, and still use, both LYNX and LINKS for a number of
web-browsing purposes (including that these browsers are safer from back
hacking by trojanized websites, much faster than graphical browsers, and
sometimes will actually get through [for reasons I don't know] to websites
when a graphical browser will not get through).

I have actually succesfully used LYNX from my Unix shell account to do
business transactions (i.e. login, password, and other serial number
based transfers to other pages, or accesses on the website, on the internet).

At least LYNX has a DOS port and may be naturally more resistant to hacker
attack (as well as a wide variety of malware on the internet) than
anything else (but what I've read of it, it may also crash
more often).

The idea that your can use a rare browser for access to a website and
sysadmins at the website can't recognize it suggests that the sysadmins
are really incompetant (Maybe its MS Windows Server and the sysadmins
thing there is nothing else in the world besides MS SW) and the law
enforcement system is doing a knee-jerk instead of a well thought out
proceedure. What I've read of catching black hackers they do quite a
bit of research on the guy first, then sic the cops on them.

The innocient guy would be in his rights to litigate for compensation for
his inconvenience AND a miscarrige of justice. Other people who like to
use LYNX and LINKS for web browsing...take heed. And, for the
surreptitious, you can google "fake user-agent" for more information.

Relevant Pages

  • Actually fairly important...was: Re: /COMP/especially for Art Sowers
    ... > Jailed for using a nonstandard browser ... > in the system log indicated a hack-attempt, and the police broke down ... I have actually succesfully used LYNX from my Unix shell account to do ... based transfers to other pages, or accesses on the website, on the internet). ...
    (comp.security.firewalls)
  • Actually fairly important...was: Re: /COMP/especially for Art Sowers
    ... > Jailed for using a nonstandard browser ... > in the system log indicated a hack-attempt, and the police broke down ... I have actually succesfully used LYNX from my Unix shell account to do ... based transfers to other pages, or accesses on the website, on the internet). ...
    (comp.security.unix)
  • Actually fairly important...was: Re: /COMP/especially for Art Sowers
    ... > Jailed for using a nonstandard browser ... > in the system log indicated a hack-attempt, and the police broke down ... I have actually succesfully used LYNX from my Unix shell account to do ... based transfers to other pages, or accesses on the website, on the internet). ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: Slow Downloads
    ... The link I provided was for Broadband Reports, not Cox. ... comfortable switching from IE to another browser. ... Are there any Web sites that cause no problems at all? ... America's website takes a long time to load. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: single page apps, URL hash setting, bookmarking, & the back button.
    ... illusion for users with no expectations to begin with. ... Incompetence and broken browser behavior were definite factors (with ... links because they find the website hard to use, ...
    (comp.lang.javascript)
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