FBI Raids Dental Software Researcher Who Found Patient Records On Public Server

blottsie writes: Yet another security researcher is facing possible prosecution under the CFAA for accessing data on a publicly accessible server. The FBI on Tuesday raided Texas-based dental software security researcher Justin Shafer, who found the protected health records of 22,000 patients stored on an anonymous FTP.

“This is a troubling development. I hope the government doesn't think that accessing unsecured files on a public FTP server counts as an unauthorized access under the CFAA,” Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and CFAA scholar told the Daily Dot. “If that turns out to be the government's theory—which we don't know yet, as we only have the warrant so far—it will be a significant overreach that raises the same issues as were briefed but not resolved in [Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer's] case. I'll be watching this closely.”