News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The FCC.gov Website Lets You Upload Malware Using Its Own Public API Key. Parent comment

Re:The FCC.gov Website Lets You Upload Malware Using Its Own... by TheAceOfHearts on Thursday August 31, 2017 @12:09PM (#15141295)
Does it really? I'm genuinely curious during what time period you think our government would've reacted differently. This got me thinking, how would people expect different countries to react to something like this?

By making that tweet he's impersonating a government agency and passing it off as an official document. If he hadn't posted that tweet I'm sure he wouldn't have anything to fear.

EDIT: I looked up the relevant law: False Impersonation of Federal Officer or Employee [0]. It doesn't seem he got anything of value, so it's unlikely he could be charged. Although I'd be surprised if he didn't at least receive a stern conversation from a government official.

[0] http://www3.ce9.uscourts.gov/jury-instructions/node/508

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The FCC.gov Website Lets You Upload Malware Using Its Own... by icebraining on Thursday August 31, 2017 @12:50PM (#15141655)
Is creating a document with an official letterhead but no signature an "impersonation of Federal Officer or Employee"? Paraphrasing Sir Humphrey, that seems to cause epistemological problems of sufficient magnitude as to lay upon the logical and semantic resources of the English language a heavier burden than they can reasonably be expected to bear.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The FCC.gov Website Lets You Upload Malware Using Its Own... by ImSkeptical on Thursday August 31, 2017 @02:07PM (#15142401)
I think it depends what you're doing with it. For example, if I use my document with official letterhead to send my neighbor a fine that he should pay by mail in cash (that I can then intercept from his mailbox) - that's probably criminal. On the other hand, if I were to use my forged letterhead to write "Don't just trust anything written on a document like this, it's easy to forge!" I hope that wouldn't be.

The original incident in the article seems more like the latter to me. If I were on the jury, I certainly wouldn't convict.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The FCC.gov Website Lets You Upload Malware Using Its Own... by icebraining on Friday September 01, 2017 @02:41AM (#15146622)
Your example still seem like it wouldn't be impersonation, even if it's fraud.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The FCC.gov Website Lets You Upload Malware Using Its Own... by mattyw on Thursday August 31, 2017 @04:23PM (#15143604)
It's not an official document unless it's officially written in the minutes by an official
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The FCC.gov Website Lets You Upload Malware Using Its Own... by mulmen on Thursday August 31, 2017 @05:24PM (#15144072)
Surely that's what makes it impersonation?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The FCC.gov Website Lets You Upload Malware Using Its Own... by icebraining on Friday September 01, 2017 @02:43AM (#15146631)
I believe mattyw was replying to my reference of Yes, Prime Minister with another one :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Overboard_(Yes,_Prime_Mini...

[ Parent | on HN ]