----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Stackpole <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 1999 12:33 PM
Subject: RE: Response to hack attempt? - The ethics of rattling door knobs.
> Just curious what other think about the rattling door knobs question. Is
it
> wrong to probe a system for security flaws if you have no evil intent? I
> check my neighbor's doors when they are on vacation to make sure no one
has
> broken in, look in the windows to make sure everything is normal. Does
that
> make me a criminal? I doubt it.
>
No,but there are some places in which such a conduct may result in the
house's owner shooting you and he will not be considered a criminal too.
Such procedures are welcomed in a village , where everybody knows each
other.
This is not the case of Internet anymore.
You was just looking after your neighbor's house , YOU know that , but
somebody else does it ?
(know what you are doing *or* taking care of the house under some contract
to do that)
What about the police which is suposed to "care and protect" ?
> Over the years, I've called many a company to inform them of potential
> security risks I have observed. Some have come to me in the mail, some as
> extraneous packets on my Internet connection and others as the result of
my
> testing the effectiveness of certain security tools.
>
Sure.
> I do such things to help people build more secure systems.
This is just the hackers argument - by the way ;-))
(and I do believe that you and them are right(wishing better systems) , just
the way you express your findings is different.You send advice to the
company , they complaint to the vendor in their very special way...;-)
I'm interested
> in what others think about the ethics or criminality of such conduct.
>
> Your comments.
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Rabid Wombat [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Sent: Monday, July 19, 1999 6:45 PM
> > To: Bill Stackpole
> > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: RE: Response to hack attempt?
> >
> >
> > This is why setting up a "bait" system with a chroot "jail" is a good
> > idea. If you can't nail them for probing, you get a chance to nail them
> > for hacking into the (deliberately weakened) system, and have logs to
show
> > what they try to do from there. Probing may be akin to rattling the
> > doornob to see if it's locked, but hacking the bait system is B&E.
> >
> > -r.w.
> >
> >
> -
> [To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
> "unsubscribe firewalls" in the body of the message.]
Best Regards ,
PL Steinbruch
-
[To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
"unsubscribe firewalls" in the body of the message.]
