we're in trouble

"Under the theory articulated by the government, the transmission of any information that can be used by others to impair the integrity of a computer system (or cause loss of reputation) if done without authorization (and who would authorize it?) is a federal crime. " http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/179 Michael Dinowitz Finding technical solutions to the problems you didn't know you had yet

: system (or cause loss of reputation) if done without So, basically, everything Benny or I say here would be a federal crime? --BenD

That goes without saying. :) > : system (or cause loss of reputation) if done without > > So, basically, everything Benny or I say here would be a federal crime? > > --BenD

I've been going over the discussion about this. What is scary is the number of people who agree with the company's and the fed's actions. larry At 11:03 AM 8/19/2003 -0400, you wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

And that's the main reason for the subject line. How can we be a technical community unless we discuss problems with a piece of software, service or whatever. Someone, somewhere must have mentioned that they have a DB problem in CFMX 6.1 which caused MM to put out a driver patch. The driver patch helps us all, but will the person who mentioned the problem now be liable for prosecution? Will I for mentioning it? Will all those people who say Microsoft sucks now be heading off to jail for causing a loss of reputation? I'm getting really afraid of where America is going. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

This type of crap has been going on for a while.  I knew someone from VA Tech. back in the early 90's that discovered a security vulnerability in some part of the college's network.  He informed the administrators of the problem and told them how to fix it.  Did they thank him?  No.  They brought him before some type of review board to decide if he should be expelled for "hacking" their systems. I never learned what the outcome of that was. > And that's the main reason for the subject line. > How can we be a technical community unless we discuss problems with a piece of > software, service or whatever. Someone, somewhere must have mentioned that they > have a DB problem in CFMX 6.1 which caused MM to put out a driver patch. The > driver patch helps us all, but will the person who mentioned the problem now be > liable for prosecution? Will I for mentioning it? Will all those people who say > Microsoft sucks now be heading off to jail for causing a loss of reputation? > I'm getting really afraid of where America is going. --------------------------------------------- This E-mail certified virus free by Janty Corporation and Alt-N Technologies ---------------------------------------------

So... if I suggest that you open a command prompt and type "format c:" am I a federal criminal? Jim Davis > "Under the theory articulated by the government, the transmission of any > information that can be used by others to impair the integrity of a > computer > system (or cause loss of reputation) if done without authorization (and > who > would authorize it?) is a federal crime. " > > http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/179 > > Michael Dinowitz > Finding technical solutions to the problems you didn't know you had yet

So, if I said that you can make a batch file with the following commands: cd cd winnt del *.dll and send it to an poor sap in an email... I just committed a federal crime? At 11:03 AM 8/19/2003 -0400, you wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Very likely. That would probably be considered a hacking. Social engineering has been part and parcel with hacking since hacking began. -Kevin ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- computer > >system (or cause loss of reputation) if done without authorization (and who ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Only if you're not a shrub campaign contributor. larry At 11:38 AM 8/19/2003 -0400, you wrote: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Ahhh.. but you cannot.  So, you are out of the woods. ...now if you said "format d:", then you have committed a crime.  Just like I have done...LOL ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Michael Dinowitz wrote: >"Under the theory articulated by the government, the transmission of any >information that can be used by others to impair the integrity of a computer >system (or cause loss of reputation) if done without authorization (and who >would authorize it?) is a federal crime. " This prohibits fixing bugs in Open Source software, because from the bugfix, people can see what the bug was. I think this will cause even more OSS projects to set up in Canada or Europe. Jochem