Shocker : Researcher Gets Arrested After Finding and Reporting SQL Injection on Elections Site in United States
This can happen only in America. A security researcher who found and reported flaws was surprisingly arrested instead of being rewarded by authorities in Florida. David Levin, 31, a security researcher from Estero, Florida, has turned himself in after Florida police issued a warrant for his arrest last week. The warrant was issued by Florida Police after finding Levin guilty of three hacking-related charges.
Despite of making the police understand he found out the flaws for protecting the election website from hackers, Levin had to spent six hours in jail last Wednesday before being released on a $15,000 bond.
Police on their part stated that Levin was arrested for illegally accessing state websites on three occasions. The first took place on December 19, 2015 when Levin illegally accessed the Lee County Elections website. This incident was then followed by two other, on January 4 and 31, 2016, when Levin also hacked into the Department the State Elections website as well.
The authorities stated that they charged Levin because he never asked for permission prior to starting his endeavor. Perhaps they did not know that security researchers often try to find loopholes in websites including critical state-owned websites to protect them from cyber criminals.
Levin, who’s the owner of his own company called Vanguard Cybersecurity, has also recorded a video together with Dan Sinclair, detailing how he hacked into the vulnerable website using a simple SQL injection bug.
