Interested in "trying out your skills"? Read this first

[ShadowKill]

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It wasn't my intention to offend anyone either and I cannot understand why anyone would interpret sarcasm as 'hostile' - unless it's another one of those UK/US language barrier things

The point I was trying to make is that he is wasting his time trying to educate the sort of noobs who visit places like this for information on how to crack their neighbour's wireless connection. They're going to try it anyway regardless of the possible consequences and as Pureh@ate pointed out this isn't limited to just noobs either, even people who damn well know better do it.
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Because your "sarcasm" carries the same kind of tone that your "point" does: the wrong one. Attempting to educate people that may not know the law, regardless of their intentions or why they are on this forum, is absolutely fine and not in the least a waste of time. Saving one person from making these kinds of mistakes is infinitely more admirable than sitting back and letting otherwise ignorant people take an unnecessary fall.

You need to sit back and rethink yourself because your stance is making you look pretty bad. And that's just my 0.02p

[Phoneywar]

Because your "sarcasm" carries the same kind of tone that your "point" does: the wrong one. Attempting to educate people that may not know the law, regardless of their intentions or why they are on this forum, is absolutely fine and not in the least a waste of time. Saving one person from making these kinds of mistakes is infinitely more admirable than sitting back and letting otherwise ignorant people take an unnecessary fall.

You need to sit back and rethink yourself because your stance is making you look pretty bad. And that's just my 0.02p

I originally typed out a long reply to this addressing your points and explaining my reasoning in greater detail, giving examples from official documents backed up by personal experience, when it suddenly struck me that I was doing exactly the same thing as bulgin. So I will simply leave it with following observation.

If they haven't learned not to break into things or steal by the time they reach somewhere like here then all the evidence suggests that the only lesson which might stick is the hardest one of all.

[elight]

I agree with both shadowkill and phoneywar. Although most of us(hopefully) have learned at this point we shouldn't be practicing on other peoples networks, if posting a reminder saves even one person from some legal trouble it's worth it.

[ShadowKill]

I originally typed out a long reply to this addressing your points and explaining my reasoning in greater detail, giving examples from official documents backed up by personal experience, when it suddenly struck me that I was doing exactly the same thing as bulgin. So I will simply leave it with following observation.

If they haven't learned not to break into things or steal by the time they reach somewhere like here then all the evidence suggests that the only lesson which might stick is the hardest one of all.

I hope you're not implying that I'm the helpless and uber-evil noob you have been chastising this entire thread.....

[Phoneywar]

I hope you're not implying that I'm the helpless and uber-evil noob you have been chastising this entire thread.....

heh. I wasn't suggesting that anyone here was a "helpless and uber-evil noob".

[ShadowKill]

heh. I wasn't suggesting that anyone here was a "helpless and uber-evil noob".

I didn't figure as much

[Phoneywar]

I didn't figure as much

lol. I meant I was obviously wasting my time but you chose to interpret this in the worst possible light

[williamc]

I was reading through some of these cases. Some in particular were rather excessive. For instance, the inmate that "hacked" the prison management system to access the internet:
http://www.cybercrime.gov/janoskoIndict.pdf

"exploiting a previously-unknown idiosyncrasy in the legal research software".

Can we assume he found a way to launch commands through a help menu of some kind? Maybe get a command prompt? And who is the f*cktard that had SSN and personal information accessible on an inmate legal research computer? That guy/girl should face charges of stupidity!

Does this warrant 10 years of imprisonment? Maybe he should of molested some children and got a lighter sentence (sheesh). It really irritates me that a person can face such harsh penalties for taking advantage of weak or non-existent security. (now I'm not condoning it, just think its overkill, no flames please).

William

[PeppersGhost]

who is the f*cktard

That's poetry.

[Phoneywar]

That is a fundamental problem with the current legal framework. Lazy and/or incompetent admins can get away with leaving their employer's systems wide open to abuse without fear of reprisal while it's the idiots who take advantage of their laziness which get 10 years.

Unfortunately the alternative - holding admins accountable - is far, far worse. At the very least it would lead to a situation where intrusions are simply not reported for fear of LEO's taking the lazy option of charging the admin with having failed to properly secure the system in question.

A far better middle ground would be a sort of 'safe harbour' provision which required admins to make a reasonable effort to secure the system before any charges could be brought, ie. someone who left their wireless connection unsecured has no grounds to complain when it gets abused but someone who cracked the encryption to gain access would be prosecuted.

Not that any such thing is likely to happen under the current political climate. Too many vested interests trying to avoid having to do the work necessary to properly secure their products.