UK preps 'hacking tools' ban [News]
Guidelines published by the Crown Prosecution Service modify the Computer Misuse Act in such a way to make it a crime to distribute network tools like the popular Nmap and Wireshark utilities.
COMING SOON: Ban on keyboards, the most notorious of all hacker gadgets. With a few taps here and there and they can steal your megabytes right from under you!
Someone somewhere is short sighted and poorly educated.
I can see one side of the argument, that being that if the tools used by hackers are made illegal, logically less people should get them and therefore less attacks will be made.
The flip side is that:
1) This is the internet, use via legality is a moral choice not one by law in most cases.
2) They'll be developed anonymously and distrubuted covertly.
3) It makes counter-hacking to find the holes and fix them more difficult, which means that the internet will be less secure than it is already.
Yes, I imagine the general perception of these bits of software is that they are some sort of magic computer skeleton key. Rather than complex tools that take time to learn and a lot longer to use and get useful results from, when hacking that is.
agreed. As someone affected by this I read the amendment itself
Admittedly it's a useless law IMHO, it just adds to a law that adds nothing to the original Computer Misuse Act. But, the article above is knee jerk sensationalism.. "Oh my god think of the <s>children</s>sysadmins all over their forums.
You're not going to get prosecuted for having a scissors at home for cutting up your jeans, but you will if you go out on the town with them in your pocket with the intent of ventilating someone.
You're not going to be prosecuted for having a copy of Wireshark or a portscanner and testing you own equipment... but use it on equipment that isn't yours, and you're asking for trouble.
As usual, it's what you do with a tool is what matters. (TWSS)
deject wrote:jesus christ that's fucked. How retarded can lawmakers get?
heh, umm, do you really need an answer to that one?
This is, as i think most people here agree - useless.
Hackers will not care if they are legal tools or not. The UK gov cannot police the internet, so they will still be available.
If it does make legitimate use of them hassle, then its even worse than useless.
might i point out, that it might be wise to point out your misgivings on the act to someone in government, perhaps try to explain to them what the problem with the amendment is, rather than just complaining about it to people who feel the same way.
i'm not trying to have a go at anyone here, but i'm guessing that , like a lot of other cases i imagine, people read about these things nad complain to their friends down the pub/forums, but no one takes the time to write to the numptys that came up with the laws and put the point across
Undoubtedly we do moan and bitch and never actually moan and bitch to mp's, local councillors etc. But in the end most of us are just too damn lazy, and we know people with bigger voices are going to be heard far before we ever are.
So if some self-proclaimed expert of IT stands up in the commons or lords and actually calls bullshit on this, they might have an effect.
But as much as we're meant to be represented by our government, they don't actually listen too well and a consequence of this is that it's more likely the 'expert' is actually a complete twatcaek who's just read computers for dummies and will give a speech like the lines in die-hard 4, and it will all get fucked up a little bit further.
I think (may well be wrong however) that the cps amendments bypass the commons and have to be ratified before the whole house of lords, or a commission of a few who are selected because of their knowledge in the area (supposedly) depending on its seriousness. This is for many a small thing, so will probably just quietly pass through a commission and into law. But as I see it, if your using it for legitimate purposes there really isn't much they can do, like Fear/C&H said if your caught doing naughty things, they'll hit you, but if it's all above board then you should be fine. Although how they even begin to properly police this is beyond me.
HereComesPete wrote:But in the end most of us are just too damn lazy, and we know people with bigger voices are going to be heard far before we ever are.
Still (and I do understand where you're coming from), if you understand the issues and you think theres a point, there is nothing wrong with using a site like http://www.writetothem.com/ I do occasionally when theres a point, and lets face it IF an MP did get a deluge of mail about a particular subject they MIGHT (0.00001% probability) do something about it.
UK preps 'hacking tools' ban [News]
agreed. As someone affected by this I read the amendment itself
