Time for province to come clean on information leak

It certainly appears there was no malicious intent, and if the lad’s computer, now in the hands of the police, shows he didn’t try to peddle any personal information, his story is confirmed, and the government needs to climb down, fast.

Now that info-gate has taken the worst possible turn for the Nova Scotia government, there is one honourable way out. The province needs to admit its security weakness, back off any prosecution, beg forgiveness and promise to do better.

A dinner of crow and humble pie seasoned with his own words would be unpalatable for Premier Stephen McNeil, so don’t be surprised if it is eventually served up to Internal Services Minister Patricia Arab at a table for one.

The alternative is far worse — government prosecuting, or persecuting, a 19-year-old kid to cover its own ineptitude.

The more likely outcome will come soon after the legislature recesses when the charges against the young man are quietly dropped.

CBC tracked down the lad police have charged with unauthorized use of a computer, which carries a maximum 10-year jail term. The young man says he was simply going about his business, didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong and the so-called information breach required minimal effort.

Experts support him. They say the technique he used — a simple script that automatically downloads sequentially numbered files — is not uncommon among people who want to dig a little deeper and capture information to peruse at their leisure. That’s exactly what the young man said he was doing.

It certainly appears there was no malicious intent, and if the lad’s computer, now in the hands of the police, shows he didn’t try to peddle any personal information, his story is confirmed, and the government needs to climb down, fast.

Should the Crown take this flimsy bit of dross to trial, the smart money will be on the accused and whatever legal talent rallies to his aid. Some top-flight lawyers will do just that if they see the government using the legal system as a political cudgel.

To recap previous events: On April 5, the province discovered, accidently, that its freedom of information, protection of privacy web portal had coughed up personal information in documents housed on the site, but not intended for public consumption. The government shut down the portal and called the cops, who nabbed and charged the kid.

With the charge laid, the government disclosed what it called an information breach and characterized the young man as a malicious hacker.

The alleged breach occurred more than a month before its discovery. That it happened on the province’s freedom of information, protection of privacy web portal is a delicious irony the government finds not at all appetizing.

The CBC report suggests that the Halifax Police were infected by the province’s overwrought or panicky pique and sent a small army to ransack the home of your average Nova Scotian family with the technically adept teenager.

The McNeil government likes to tout its efforts to prepare kids to participate in the high-tech economy. The 19-year-old who is home worried about his future today is just one of those kids.

If, as now seems certain, he was acting with no ill intent, the Public Prosecution Service and police need to drop the charge, or failing that the Attorney General, Mark Furey, should instruct the PPS to stay any legal proceedings against this young man. That is the Attorney General’s authority and responsibility under the Public Prosecution Act.

As this now stands, it is hard to image the provincial government looking any worse.

It has proved inept and incapable of protecting Nova Scotians’ information — the personal information on the site was neither encrypted nor password protected. The auditor general identified vulnerabilities in the government’s information security system repeatedly. And, the province has been authoritarian in its attempt to control the political damage.

A 19-year-old Nova Scotian, and his family, are anxious for his future.

They were subjected to what appears a heavy-handed police response. Clearly the Halifax cops were loaded for bear, but it was the provincial government that sent them out hunting.

The province withheld word of the information leak until the police had nabbed a suspect it could point to as the culprit.

Initially, the premier and minister claimed the police told them to stay quiet until an arrest was made, but when the police contradicted that version, the government’s story got murky.

The lesson of Watergate, which supplied the overused suffix applied above, is that it’s not the crime that gets you. It’s the coverup.

From all appearances, there is no crime here, but there is a coverup and it stinks. The government needs to come clean, back off and apologize all around, starting with the family whose house got ransacked and the kid who’s being scapegoated.

Jim Vibert consulted or worked for five Nova Scotia governments. He now keeps a close and critical eye on provincial and regional powers.