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A comment on Starbucks caught storing mobile passwords in clear text. Parent comment

Re:Starbucks caught storing mobile passwords in clear text by bigtunacan on Thursday January 16, 2014 @02:03PM (#7071699)
I would not agree that this is extortion. I would consider it to be more self-protection. If you have no intention of misuse or public release of the security flaw to the public; you are offering a no harm approach while offering a valuable service. The unfortunate situation is that the business in question does not value the service even though they should.

Most competent programmers do not have time to just go around and fix every security flaw pro bono either.

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Re:Starbucks caught storing mobile passwords in clear text by wdewind on Thursday January 16, 2014 @02:37PM (#7071960)
I understand it's not extortion. You'll note I never said it was extortion.

I also understand how it protects the reporter.

I'm not asking the reporter to take responsibility or do anything that would harm them, I'm asking them not to essentially make the sales pitch of "look at how your neighbor had something bad happen to them, you wouldn't want something similar to happen to you now would you?"

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