Channel Register

Coding errors expose hidden area of BT site

Anonymous Coward

Perhaps ... 

Perhaps they've hidden them because there's nothing worth seeing there.

Of much more interest is that if you find the appropriate page for reporting web page errors anywhere, it insists you enter the telephone number of "the service you're having problems with".

That's right, it wants the telephone number of the web page, not its URL.

Which might not be too bad, except that it also insists on checking that the number you enter is a valid telephone number, so you can't report an error on a web page that doesn't have a telephone number.

jeremy

no surprise 

BT is quite a company to do any work for. I was the tech lead on a project a little while ago and like any lumbering, ignorant behemoth, the techies are generally very good but the muppets with manager in their job title are clueless wanting everything now and then wanting it all different in 5 minutes.

This leads to making things easy to get to and change, so lax security is not far around any corner!

Chris

Last time BT did this... 

Well maybe not last time, as it was 7 years ago and I'm sure it has happened to them since. But back then they left a database of customer details on an open server assuming that nobody would notice it, and therefore it was safe. I know because my details were stolen from the server.

Less than a week after that, I had a call from BT trying to sell me online security services!

Geoff Johnson

I found the calculator on Google 

BT didn't seem to want me to know their prices so I tried Google and found the hidden area had been indexed.

Not terribly well hidden when that happens.

cor

If you're close enough to read this... 

BT have just got more free advertising.

Gareth

Lorem 

Psh! "Text in Latin" indeed.. It's Lorem Impsum - placeholder gibberish. (Easily distinguishable from the rest of BT's site by... erm... um... nevermind.)

Anonymous Coward

Also Here Too.... 

It's also here too...

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do;JSESSIONID_ecommerce=GqXTBjQpvN5fw4CVb4nXVHQx17z4SrzycZ6Jhq8d9NGmv0dP2Fls!-1154117?topicId=19623

Christopher Woods

Oh dear, looks like the site admins go home at lunchtime 

It's 6:20pm as I check the site, and all the mentioned holey parts of the web site are still there.

Not very impressive!

Nick

All from the company... 

... that says don't run IT systems yourself, let BT do it for you. Or something along those lines according to Gordon Ramsey.

If they did this to his website, I'm sure a number of expletives might pass his lips.

Badger

speaking of badly coded pages... 

what's going on with this comments page...

Kevin Thomas

@Gareth 

"Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old."

http://lipsum.com/