how 2 b 3leet! – you can be a hacker in three easy text
files…
Let’s talk about computers for a minute. Those of us who can make them do
cool things generally wind up being called one of two things. Either we are
"Hackers"
or sometimes "Crackers".
OK – we get called other stuff too, but it’s all obscene.
Anyway, it is important to understand the differences and to realize that
ignorance makes for some seriously bad law. In fact, an international
treaty is about to happen that is extremely harmful and despite some serious
protest it looks like it will simply become reality.
|
“Oct. 19 โ A coalition of 28 international cyber-rights organizations have come out against a draft treaty on cybercrime that could broaden European and U.S. law enforcement powers online โ outlawing network security tools and requiring companies to keep extensive logs of the traffic on their systems.”
"The concern here is that the U.S. government is going [ full |
The issue is the same one it always is, the government picks some group
almost everyone is afraid of and proceeds to use the panic and fear generated by
that group to make sweeping changes in the law – almost always to the detriment
of civil rights. In this case, they are looking for broad powers to invade and
seize data and attempt to make sure you cannot hide anything from them.
| "The treaty even includes aiding and abetting rules that appear to make the publishing of software vulnerabilities or โexploitsโ illegal, according to U.S.-based cyberlaw expert Jennifer Granick. That could make vulnerability mailing lists like BugTraq and NTBugTraq, both with well over 30,000 subscribers, illegal, she said." – full article |
The problem is even more serious. It is crucial that "white
hats" be able to communicate
their findings of vulnerabilities quickly and continue to have the tools we
need to test our systems and evaluate our vulnerabilities.
In other words, the only way to defend yourself and your
systems from crackers is to make sure you are as skilled as they are. This is
absolutely crucial.
Trust us on this, because it’s a whole new world out there beyond your
modem and if you want us to be able to protect you you simply cannot make it
illegal for us to have the tools we need.
By the way, an excellent look into a break in and the defense against one can
seen online in this
MSNBC article. It gives you an excellent non-technical look at how this
happens.