IT consultant fined for daring to expose shoddy security

A contractor discovered that Modern Solution's MSConnect.exe contained a plaintext hardcoded database password that allowed access to a shared MariaDB server, exposing data for roughly 700,000 customers (names, contact details, bank details, passwords, and conversation histories). After public reporting in June 2021, the researcher was later charged and ultimately fined under Germany's Section 202a for unlawful data access, a ruling that has drawn criticism for potentially criminalizing legitimate security research.