Debating Samaritan Hacking
from the good?--bad? dept
The Register is running an article about a panel of security experts talking about whether or not “good samaritan” hacking should be legal. The question is if a hacker breaks into a network, does no harm, and then tells the company where the security breach is (and/or helps them fix it) – is that illegal? As the law stands now, it certainly is illegal, but is that a good thing? Adrian Lamo made more famous recently for his NYTimes.com hack was on the panel (he’s still waiting to see how the NYTimes responds to his hack). While most people seemed to feel that there should be some space for “ethical” hacking, many seemed to think that Lamo went over the line in waiting a long time before reporting the NY Times hack, while playing around in their system.
