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Comment by prhn

14 hours ago

Technically, yes it is still burglary.

It's an odd position to take, that a crime was not committed or the offense isn't as bad if the difficulties of committing the crime have been removed or reduced.

> odd position [...] offense isn't as bad if the difficulties of committing the crime have been removed or reduced

Not really, intent is a part of the crime. If the barrier for crime is extremely small, the crime itself is less egregious.

Planning a robbery is not the same as picking up a wallet on the sidewalk. This is a feature, not a bug.

  • This. 1000x this.

    Yes, it’s still wrong to take things but the guy should get like community service teaching white hat techniques or something. The CEO should be charged with gross negligence, fraud, and any HIPPA/Medical records laws he violated - per capita. Meaning he should face 1M+ counts of …

  • What does "the crime is less egregious" even mean?

    Morally, you burglarized a home.

    Legally, at least in CA, the charge and sentencing are equivalent.

    If someone also commits a murder while burglarizing you could argue the crime is more severe, but my response would be that they've committed two crimes, and the severity of the burglary in isolation is equivalent.

Now, how do we apply that to today’s current events?

Is it still a crime if the roadblocks to commit the crime are removed? Even applauded by some? What happens when the chief of police is telling you to go out and commit said crimes?

Law and order is dictated by the ruling party. What was a crime yesterday may not be a crime today.

So if all you did was turn a key and now you’re a burglar going to prison, when the CEO of the house spent months setting up the perfect crime scene, shouldn’t the CEO at least get an accomplice charge? Insurance fraud starts the same way…

It's a common attitude with people from low-trust societies. "I'm not a scammer - I'm clever. If you don't want us to scam your system why do you make it so easy?"

  • The Internet is the ultimate low-trust society. Your virtual doorstep is right next to ~8 billion other peoples' doorsteps. And attributing attacks and enforcing consequences is extremely difficult and rather unusual.

    When people from high-trust societies move to a low-trust society, they either adapt to their new environment and take an appropriately defensive posture or they will get robbed, scammed, etc.

    Those naïfs from high-trust societies may not be morally at fault, but they must be blamed, because they aren't just putting themselves at risk. They must make at least reasonable efforts to secure the data in their custody.

    It's been like this for decades. It's time to let go of our attachment to heaping all the culpability on attackers. Entities holding user data in custody must take the blame when they don't adequately secure that data, because that incentivizes an improved security posture.

    And an improved security posture is the only credible path to a future with fewer and smaller data breaches.

    See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25574200

    • We can start by stopping the use of posture like you’re squirming in your seat. I’ve heard that term for the last 10 years and never has it been useful. Policy yes, Practice if you must, Mandate absolutely, Governance required.

      Using posture is a kin to modeling or showing off clothes, the likes of which will never see the streets. Let’s all start agreeing that the term is a rug cover for whatever security wants it to be. Without checks and balances.

      If your posture is having your rear end exposed and up in public then…

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