US federal government: oh, are you from Massachusetts but living abroad? Click here to double check which district you’re registered to vote in
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US federal government: oh, are you from Massachusetts but living abroad? Click here to double check which district you’re registered to vote in
Massachusetts government: you have been IP banned for attempting to use our website for AMERICANS from Communist Europe.
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this is especially funny/mysterious considering that Massachusetts is the most European state in the US and has an especially high amount of US/EU immigration in both directions
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I keep getting replies about GDPR, but there is absolutely no reason to think this has anything to do with GDPR. An American government website that only provides completely public information does not need to do anything at all to comply with GDPR, and the error message was extremely clear that I was IP banned for being "suspicious traffic", so probably everyone outside the US is suspicious.
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I sent them a very polite email informing them that they'd accidentally blocked me, an American trying to access American government services, and that I was probably not the only person affected so they might want to double check their block list. They wrote back that they refuse to unblock me because they've detected "high threat activity" from my IP address. I have sent them another very polite email:
That is very interesting. I had assumed you had blocked a large range that unintentionally included me, but you say you have logs on my IP address specifically. I didn't mention this in my first email, but I happen to be a computer scientist working in information security. If my personal home IP address in Amsterdam is performing attacks against you, that sounds like information I would be very keen on seeing. Kindly send me the logs that demonstrate I am launching some sort of metasploit probe and not just trying to connect to my own government's public website from my iPad, so that I can track down the rogue raspberry pi someone apparently planted in my closet to inconvenience me when I am trying to exercise my right to vote; we'll both sleep easier when it's done.
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@0xabad1dea a fine missive, but how do you estimate your chances of getting a fruitful response?
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@batterpunts I estimate a 5% chance they either sigh and unblock me or send me logs demonstrating that someone once nmap'd them from this IP address two years ago, but whoever clicks it will have to live forever with the nagging knowledge that they have angered a witch
