[aklug] Re: Why hacking isn't fun anymore

On Sat, Aug 07, 2010 at 08:03:51PM -0800, Royce Williams wrote:
> Christopher Howard said, on 08/07/2010 07:40 PM:
> > Alaska Statute 11.46.740. Criminal use of computer.
>
> [snip; you can see the text here as well:]
>
> http://touchngo.com/lglcntr/akstats/Statutes/Title11/Chapter46/Section740.htm
>
>
> > (7) encrypts or decrypts data.
>
> IANAL, but ... if encryption is a crime, I'll eat my hat. If your sole activity is encryption, and you aren't holding someone's data hostage (which is alreadycovered by the other bullet points), I wouldn't think that this would hold up in court. The language does say that you have to access it with "no right to do so", so I guess that's reasonable, but #7 really stands out in a list of otherwise naughty behaviors.
>
> That "exceeding authorization" thing is key. If we learned anything from the Intel vs Randall Schwartz case (even though his conviction was expunged ten years later) that, unless it's already clearly in your job description to do security checks on the systems that you maintain, you should ask for permission before doing any pen(etration) testing or demonstration of weaknesses.

#7 falls under (a), which states:

"having no right to do so or any reasonable ground to believe the person
has such a right"

So that only means encrypting/decrypting data on a computer where you
don't have rights to do so. Doesn't mean encrypting/decrypting your own
data.
 
> http://news.cnet.com/Intel-hacker-sentence-expunged/2100-7350_3-6164113.html
>
> Also, though I'm sure you know this, just to be clear for any newbies, hacking != cracking. The behaviors listed in 11.46.740 (except for #7) are clearly cracking. I hack FreeBSD, shell, Perl and PHP for a living, and no crimes (other than aesthetic crimes, and maybe some architectural crimes sometimes if you ask Chris Brown) are committed. ;-)
>
> http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
>
> Royce

Thanks for posting those canonical links ... didn't want to be sussed to
fire up Google when everyone has it, and opinions about ESR tend to run the
full gamut of religion. ;)

Bruce

-- 
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the
lesson afterward. But properly learned, the lesson forever changes
the man."
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