UK Moves to Outlaw 'Hacker Tools'

twitter writes "New guidance rules for the UK's controversial Computer Misuse Act do not allay fears of impracticality, or of the banning of legitimate IT software: 'The government has come through with guidelines that address some, but not all, of these concerns about dual-use tools. The guidelines establish that to successfully prosecute the author of a tool it needs to be shown that they intended it to be used to commit computer crime. But the Home Office, despite lobbying, refused to withdraw the distribution offense. This leaves the door open to prosecute people who distribute a tool, such as nmap, that's subsequently abused by hackers.'" Somewhat similar legislation recently became law in Germany.

I better take down...

[MozeeToby]

That list of every IP address I posted a while back.

Time to flee the Fascist State of America...

[goldspider]

...and find solace in Europe, where reasonable government and personal liberty reign supreme! ...wait, what?

Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

If you outlaw security tools, then only outlaws will be secure!

IRC and Windows

[OrangeTide]

Better ban IRC servers (popular for zombies) and Windows boxes in general (also popular for zombies)

Not surprised

[fastest fascist]

Pretty much on par for the UK, as far as I can tell. Now, fess up: Who gave the gov't there copies of 1984?

seriously

[SoupGuru]

I mean really, are there any legitimate reasons to use something like nmap?

Yes, ladies and gents, that was sarcasm. ...and yes, that "ladies" part was a joke too.

Re:I better take down...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not yet - Please!
I'm almost done downloading...

Re:It's not about security.

[Intron]

Fortunately, you can now get that at Sears. [slashdot.org]

Re:IRC and Windows

[Pichu0102]

Such full bans are not neccessary. Just make it so that Windows boxes and boxes with IRC clients are at least a few miles away from graveyards.

Why stop there

[Anonymous Coward]

Why stop at nmap or wireshark? Sure, your basic networking book refers to both of these, but in a world without malhackers, which is what you want if you support this law (you don't support law breakers who want to hurt children, do you?), why do you need to understand networking? Why stop there, you can glean a good amount of information with malicious intent off of a TCP header, you don't want your computers and phones hacked do you, ban TCP, UDP, MAC addresses, finger, traceroute, ping. While we are at it, we could still have a local hacker, we should ban keyboards too! Cat5 cables can be used to bind someone, you don't support kidnapping, do you? Damn, I'm not even a PhD and I have solved computer security forever. Stop ripping on these good lawmakers, they know whats best for you. A nerf world, we need a plug-and-play nerf world!

Re:Time to flee the Fascist State of America...

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when UK is in Europe ? I always thought it was in USA.

Re:I better take down...

[clem]

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you're going to have to restart that download from scratch for the new IPv6 addresses.

Re:seriously

[Hucko]

You're supposed to use the 'you're' tag. We won't revoke your geek cred this time, but let this be a warning.