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| The governor of Missouri doesn't know how the sites works |
Missouri Governor Mike Parson has no idea how the site works. He held a press conference in St. Louis and reiterated his desire to sue a St. Louis Post reporter for access to the source code of a state website.
Journalist Josh Reno reported in October 2021 that the source code for the Department of Elementary Education website revealed Social Security numbers for more than 100,000 teachers, administrators, and school counselors.
This story was published after informing the state of the problem and correcting the deficiencies. However, Parsons and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education were apparently not grateful for the warning and immediately accused Reno of hacking the site.
The Missouri Education Officer wrote to teachers: Register at least three teachers. Decode the site's source code. Please note the Social Security numbers for these specific teachers.
According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch records, the FBI informed the state that the website was faulty and that Reno's behavior was not a hacking attack.
The source code is not encrypted. The site's source code is publicly accessible to anyone using a web browser.
Although collecting them requires some technical knowledge. But just viewing it is as easy as opening the developer tool options available in almost any web browser.
Parsons argued that anyone who uses the Developer Tools through a website that is not affiliated with them is considered a hacker.
How does the site work
While the serious misunderstanding by state agencies and governors about how the site works may be interesting, Governor Parsons' behavior has not been so interesting since the newspaper first reported his story.
According to public records from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Missouri Education Commissioner originally planned to thank the newspaper for discovering the loophole. But after meeting with the governor's office, his tone changed to an indictment.
The Missouri Highway Patrol Commissioner is appointed by the governor and has jurisdiction over the country, and the commission has opened an investigation into the newspaper's report.
The case was referred to Cole County District Attorney Luke Thompson (Luke Thompson). Governor Parson quoted the state's computer tampering law at a press conference and suggested that Thompson use it to sue Reno and the newspapers.
At the press conference, Parsons compared Reno's behavior to that of someone using a lock and key to enter his home without permission. Websites are public interfaces; They look like public buildings, not homes.