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City pays $350,000 after suing “hackers” for opening Dropbox link it sent them

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Dissent

When is a “hack” not a “hack?” When a government entity mistakenly gives journalists access to files that just maybe, they didn’t intend to give them access to…..

Tim De Chant reports:

The city of Fullerton, California, has agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a lawsuit it brought against two bloggers it accused of hacking the city’s Dropbox account.

Joshua Ferguson and David Curlee frequently made public record requests in the course of covering city government for a local blog, Friends for Fullerton’s Future. The city used Dropbox to fulfill large file requests, and in response to a June 6, 2019, request for records related to police misconduct, Ferguson and Curlee were sent a link to a Dropbox folder containing a password-protected zip file.

But a city employee also sent them a link to a more general “Outbox” shared folder that contained potential records request documents that had not yet been reviewed by the city attorney.

Read more on Ars Technica

Category: Government SectorOf NoteU.S.

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