Tsunami appeal site ‘hacker’ found guilty
`A computer consultant has been convicted of gaining unauthorised access to a Web site collecting donations for victims of last year’s tsunami, even though the judge hearing the case accepted that he meant to cause no harm. [..]
Earlier this year it was reported that Cuthbert had donated money to the Tsunami appeal using the text-only Lynx browser, which can appear to behave differently to other browsers from the server’s point of view.
But in court on Wednesday, Cuthbert said he had made a £30 donation to the site, after clicking on a banner advert. When he received no final thank-you or confirmation page he suspected he might have fallen victim to a phishing scam, so he carried out two tests to check the security of the site.
Cuthbert’s defence team had argued that he had merely ‘knocked on the door’ of the site, pointing out that he had the skills to break into it if he wanted.’
