Missouri vows prosecution after Post-Dispatch finds security flaw

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is facing potential prosecution after officials with the newspaper say they discovered a security flaw on a Missouri agency website.

Gov. Mike Parson characterized the actions as hacking. He noted it could cost taxpayers $50 million as the state investigates.

The Post-Dispatch in a Wednesday story reported an unnamed reporter confirmed with security experts that Social Security numbers were viewable in the source code of a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education web application. HTML source code is publicly available to anyone with a web browser and the ability to view it comes as a built-in feature.

The Post-Dispatch reportedly warned DESE of the flaw before issuing the article.

Read more from NPR.