Governor vows criminal prosecution of reporter who found flaw in state website

Re:Governor vows criminal prosecution of reporter who found ... by qwertox on Thursday October 14, 2021 @02:53PM (#28868366)

All this reminds me of the case of Lilith Wittmann [1], who got sued by the CDU (Germany's majority-holding party) in May 2021 because she discovered a security flaw in their election campaign app "CDU connect". Data from around 100.000 visitors and 18.500 election campaign helpers was not sufficiently secured.

She used responsible disclosure to let the CDU know of this flaw, got sued in response.

After an outcry from the community the CDU apologized to her and retracted the complaint and the proceeding was suspended in the end of August 2021.

It's pretty sad to see how people who act upon their best intentions, intentions which are beneficial to the society, are hit so strongly by those who are afraid to admit that they made a mistake. Hit in such a manner, that it tears apart the daily routine in a very negative way for months.

[1] https://lilithwittmann.medium.com/

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Re:Governor vows criminal prosecution of reporter who found ... by nerdawson on Thursday October 14, 2021 @03:17PM (#28868713)

Sad to hear just how common these sorts of stories are. I remember reading fairly recently about a guy who reported a flaw to a company working with the NHS in the UK (should emphasise this is an external company and not the NHS themselves) and ended up having to crowdfund his legal battle.

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Re:Governor vows criminal prosecution of reporter who found ... by Tepix on Thursday October 14, 2021 @03:47PM (#28869056)

The CDU party no longer holds the majority :-)

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Re:Governor vows criminal prosecution of reporter who found ... by taejo on Friday October 15, 2021 @04:46AM (#28875695)

No party ever held a majority in the Federal Republic of Germany. But the CDU was the largest party in the previous parliament, and part of the governing majority.

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Re:Governor vows criminal prosecution of reporter who found ... by FrodoB on Friday October 15, 2021 @08:41AM (#28877074)

There is by definition almost always a party holding a relative majority (more seats than any other party), which the CDU did for the longest time.

You are correct that they did not hold an absolute majority (more seats than everybody else combined), ensuring that they always had to form a coalition to achieve that.

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Re:Governor vows criminal prosecution of reporter who found ... by taejo on Friday October 15, 2021 @08:53AM (#28877182)

I've never heard of the word "majority" meaning "relative majority" without that qualifier, but I also wouldn't use the phrase "relative majority" to refer to what to me is clearly a minority, so what do I know :)

Nevertheless, it might be better to use unambiguous terms like "plurality", or define ones terms, when writing for an international audience.

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Re:Governor vows criminal prosecution of reporter who found ... by folli on Thursday October 14, 2021 @04:22PM (#28869522)

Still can't tell if this is good or bad.

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