No subject

[zscoundrel]

Nobody EVER has the right to intentionally inflict harm.  Peace officers 
and certain government agencies have permission to use coercive means to 
enforce the laws, but no person or entity has the right to intentionally 
inflict harm to another.  If you are being harmed, you need to 
investigate and report the infractions to the proper authority.

Jonathan Hutchins wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ahmik [mailto:drbeams at hotmail.com]
> 
>> What would be the legal grounds for a program that retaliates 
>> against an attacking machine once it has determined an attack is going 
>> on ... a self defence mechanism ... the right to protect property ?
> 
> 
> IANALB Any form of taking the law into your own hands opens you to
> prosecution, with only the sympathy of judge and jury to fall back on.  And
> the jury is going to know how much about computer crime?
> 
> The legal procedure is that you take your evidence to the authorities, and
> they take the action.
> 
> Consider just how sharp you really are about attacks to begin with - if you
> (or I) were good enough to be certain beyond all doubt that you had
> identified the guilty machine, would you be posting your question here?
> Origin spoofing is one of the first levels of guarded attack.
> 
> What about collateral damage from your attack.  Could your ISP, or the ISP
> of the "attacker" go after you for traffic charges or other damages?
> Probably.
> 
> Consider what kind of "attack" you're talking about here.  Is it something
> causing demonstrable damage to property of yours?  Or is it your neighbor
> trying out that port scan utility he just downloaded?  Even a DOS attack can
> only be shown to have caused you legal damage if you run a commercial site
> that looses money for each minute it's down.  Even then, it can be argued
> that the Internet is inherently unreliable, and that's one of the risks you
> take when going on line.
> 
> What about your obligation to take due diligence to secure your host against
> attack?  Have you plugged every loophole that a lawyer with a good research
> team could find?  If not, you'll be paying that research team's salary.
> 
> So if you're gonna do it, be perfect, don't get caught, and don't tell
> anybody.
> 
> Especially us.
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
At 20, I was liberal, because I had nothing to lose and so much to gain.
by 40, I was conservative, because I had so much to lose and so little to gain.
Isn't it amazing what 20 years of hard work and experience will do for ones' point of view?