Texas company lays out 'hacking' case against Minnesota Public Radio

By David Brauer
minnpost.com
Dec 15 2009

Do Minnesota Public Radio and reporter Sasha Aslanian realistically face
civil and criminal penalties after uncovering a Texas firm’s security
breaches involving state of Minnesota job-seeker data?

Lookout Services - which acknowledges an October security breach and
subsequent security weaknesses - claimed in a Dec. 14 statement that
their data was "illegally compromised." The company - which notes "only
the Minnesota Public Radio reporter viewed" some data and wants MPR to
disclose what was viewed - will "aggressively seek prosecution for this
egregious act," according to the statement.

In a Dec. 11 report, Aslanian said she was able to see "employee names,
birth dates, Social Security numbers and hire dates" on Lookout's web
site "without using a password or encryption software."

Lookout CEO Elaine Morley says that’s not the whole truth. She contends
Aslanian did use a password and ID to penetrate Lookout's security - and
told Morley so during a Dec. 7 phone call. Later, Morley asserts,
Aslanian used information from that penetration to view the state data,
even though she didn’t need a password or encryption that time.