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World TOP Headlines: => Latest Security News & Alerts => Topic started by: Amker on 15. August 2007., 22:33:47

Title: Anti-hacking Law Hits German Websites
Post by: Amker on 15. August 2007., 22:33:47
A new law in Germany states that users should have no link with any type of hacking tools, and according to it, no one is allowed to posses any type of tool that might harm other users' computers, not to mention using 
it. This comes as a great hit to security experts  that were using such software to test programs. Further more,
to some people, this law sounds a bit like "You can't own a knife, you might kill someone with it. We don't care if your job is cutting cheese with a knife."

Some security experts had detailed blogs on program flaws and bugs, and how easy it is to exploit them. Some researchers also had hacking tools uploaded on their websites, for everyone to download and test them. But with this new law, these people were forced to remove the software from their sites, others taking down whole websites, just so they would respect the regulations.

Many people that were working in the security business were unsatisfied with the German Government's decision, but they had quickly found a solution for their problems. Some of the sites have been moved to another top level domain. They are now using domains and hosts from the Netherlands, where this law does not exist.

Also, people affected by this law say that it is very unclear, and in some cases you can't even tell for sure if you will be punished or not for your deeds. This is a nasty situation, because one could take great risks assuming that the law is on his side, only because he misunderstood something.

It is very probable that such a law will be applied in all the countries from the European Union that have signed the proper papers at the Convention on Cybercrime.
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