UK: Activist raided by police after downloading London property firm’s ‘confidential’ meeting minutes from Google Search

Gareth Corfield reports: A man who viewed documents online for a controversial London property development and shared them on social media was raided by police after developers claimed there had been a break-in to their systems. The raid by four Metropolitan Police constables took place after Southwark campaigner Robert Hutchinson was reportedly accused of illegally entering a password-protected area of a website. “I was searching in Google and found links to board meeting minutes,” he told The Register. “Board reports, none of which were marked confidential. So I have no question that it was in the public domain.” Read more on The Register. Oh for Pete’s sake… there may have been security on the front door, but if the file got indexed by Google and was accessible by clicking on a link directly, stop blaming the person who viewed it. Note that none of the reports were allegedly marked “Confidential.” It’s 2021. A firm that falsely accuses someone of hacking them when there was no hack should be made to pay — and pay dearly. Notice that this incident is not tagged as a “hack” on DataBreaches.net.  It’s an insider-error leading to “exposure.”DataBreaches.netRead More