I think the Weev sentencing has major implications for not only white hat hackers (although it hits them pretty hard), but anyone using the internet. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the courts interpretation are to blame. CFAA was written in 1984 and it's so vague that it's can turn anyone working in security and potentially anyone on the internet into a criminal with one click.
The courts are saying here that unauthorized access to a computer occurs whenever the computer owner says so, and the Department of Justice has enforced this point of view. Someone can violate the law even where there is no notice and where no password was hacked. All that is required is that a person, corporate or natural, subsequently says you don’t belong. This is an incredibly dangerous ruling that can criminalize trivial things like google searches.
People should be mad about this, but I fear most do not understand this ruling or the law enough to make sense of it.
Comments
I think the Weev sentencing has major implications for not only white hat hackers (although it hits them pretty hard), but anyone using the internet. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the courts interpretation are to blame. CFAA was written in 1984 and it's so vague that it's can turn anyone working in security and potentially anyone on the internet into a criminal with one click.
The courts are saying here that unauthorized access to a computer occurs whenever the computer owner says so, and the Department of Justice has enforced this point of view. Someone can violate the law even where there is no notice and where no password was hacked. All that is required is that a person, corporate or natural, subsequently says you don’t belong. This is an incredibly dangerous ruling that can criminalize trivial things like google searches.
People should be mad about this, but I fear most do not understand this ruling or the law enough to make sense of it.