This is so freaking stupid.
The Missouri Department of Education’s website was so poorly coded in HTML that it made it possible for anyone to see thousands and thousands of educators’ SSNs in plain text.
A journalist found out and notified them before reporting it afterwards.
So what does Missouri and its dumbass governor Parson do? Go after the journalist and accuse him of hacking.
Had this happened 25 years ago, i’d likely be laughing about the stupidity back in junior high.
Realizing that the system and those behind it are so backwards in this day and age? Not as much a laughing matter anymore.

Good grief. It isn’t hacking when the information is openly published in plain text for all to see.The union of sheer ignorance, clear malice, unbridled arrogance and detached incompetence on display here would be laughable in the 1990s, but is deeply disturbing in the present.

— Arch (Space Laser Vaccination Supervisor) (@Arch_LGF) October 15, 2021