Things went worst for Stefan Puffer, a Houston computer security consultant who briefly worked as a contractor with the Harris County, Texas district clerk's office. Puffer conducted a "war driving" exercise, reportedly accompanied by the head of Harris County's Central Technology Department, and a reporter for the Houston Chronicle. Puffer demonstrated that the Harris County clerk's office's 802.11b network was misconfigured to allow anyone to have access to the network. It was reported that Puffer uploaded a ".gif" file on one of the computers to demonstrate the ease with which an outsider could access the network -- an allegation Puffer denied.
The County clerk initially poo-pooed the incident, claiming that no data was compromised and that the wireless network was simply a "test" network which wasn't in full use. But once the Houston Chronicle ran an article describing the wireless vulnerability, embarrassed county officials brought their network up to snuff.
For his efforts, Puffer was investigated by FBI agents, who kicked in his door at 6AM, seized his computers and all electronic media and effectively put him out of business. Then he was indicted by a federal grand jury for violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- with the "damages," bizarrely, assessed as the money the county spent the close the hole. Efforts to convince the United States Attorney's Office in Texas to dismiss the charges were unsuccessful, and Puffer eventually had to stand trial -- at a cost of tens of thousands of his own and taxpayer dollars. The jury acquitted him in 15 minutes.
:thumbsup:
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