I am curious for peoples opinions on white hat hackers hacking vulnerable hosts and patching and backdooring them. I did some research and found this group who had compromised 1000's of hosts just to secure them. Looking for some feedback - I did a write up on this at one of my sites and opened it up for comments but comments here are just as good. If you want to read and comment there it is the latest post at
-Ryan
Only to be Devil's advocate (as often happens), I find that sometimes one needs to make a few "real-life" comparisons.
You go to work in the morning and accidentally forget your home door open.
Your neighbour (or the postman, or whomever) finds it open, enters your home, calling out loud your name and since he/she finds noone inside leaves your home closing the door after him/her.
Is this trespassing?
You go to work and when you stop at the coffee shop you forget there your smartphone or laptop or tablet (unlocked/active).
The waiter or waitress finds it and calls with your phone the last dialed number (or sends a mail to one of the addresses stored in the device) to have (hopefully) some information about you in order to find you and give you back the phone.
Is this a privacy violation or unauthorized access to a computer system?
You park your car, leaving it open and with keys in plain view on the seat.
A passer by notices them, opens the car door, gets the keys and your data from the car registration papers he finds in the glove compartment, then locks the car and manages to contact you to give you the keys.
Is this both a privacy violation and trespassing?
Once established that you are definitely forgetful/distracted wink which kind of punishment would you (not what the Law says) think appropriate for those people?
And now, for no apparent reason, a slightly different case
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jaclaz