Taken from Boingboing.net

Daniel Cuthbert of Whitechapel in London, has been reportedly busted for using a non-standard browser (Lynx) while making a donation to an online tsunami relief fund.The had browser triggered the donor’s intrusion detection system.A part from that he had also probed the system as he suspected that it may be a phishing scam.

What Daniel actually did to ‘knock on the door’ was to insert a ../../../ character sequence into the web address and a single quote into the credit card field - THROUGH HIS BROWSER. He did not use any attack ‘tools’ or ‘probes’ other than Internet Explorer. Furthermore, typing these sequences into a browser does not an attack make - it only proves that a website may be vulnerable. It takes a hell of a lot more effort to actually gain any form of unauthorized access to the site. Daniel did none of this, he only typed the sequences and watched the responses - and don’t forget, he actually donated the 30 p towards the fund using his real credit card and personal details.

Judge Purdy accepted that Cuthbert had not intended to cause any damage, and also pointed out there was almost no case law in this area.He was fined 400 plus 600 costs.An online pole carried out by ZDnet shows that more than 92% people disagree with this ruling.

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