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Cyber expert who stopped 'WannaCry' attack arrested in U.S. on hacking charges
- 13of40 9y agoIn this case it seems like they're after him for creating and distributing something that was tailored for criminal use. Do we have any examples where the same laws were used to prosecute people who made multi-purpose tools like debuggers, packet sniffers, key loggers, etc?
- Sam_Harris 9y agoSeriously?? https://hn.algolia.com/?query=ransomware&sort=byDate&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=last24h&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=ransomware&sort=byDate&prefix=...
- faded242 9y agoIf he actually hacked people with his code, then then they have a case. If not, then he's in a similar boat to gun manufacturers in my opinion.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Houshalter 9y agoGuns have plenty of legitimate uses. Self defense, hunting, and recreation. Guns aren't intended or even primarily purchased and used for criminal purposes. They will probably try to argue this tool was.
- code_duck 9y agoI am interested in the legalities of this. There are other areas where legality of a sale is dependent upon the seller's knowledge or beliefs about the buyer's intent. For example, drug paraphernalia… if you sell someone a pipe in Mississippi, and they don't say anything or they mention tobacco, that is fine. However if they said they wanted to use it to smoke cannabis, completing the sale would be distribution of drug paraphernalia, even though it's the same item.
- faded242 9y agoYes, this is probably a better example..
- cortesoft 9y agoThe article says he was selling his software by advertising it as a tool to steal credit card and banking information from people infected by it. There is no legitimate purpose for that. This is like a gun manufacturer advertising their gun as "Great for robbing liquor stores!"
- abiox 9y agowhat exactly does 'cyber expert' mean? is that a polite way of saying 'computer nerd'? odd title.
- leeoniya 9y agoand what exactly does 'computer nerd' mean?
- wfunction 9y agoA nerd is a single-minded enthusiast. A computer nerd is a single-minded computer enthusiast.
- make3 9y agoI might get downvoted for this, but most of the time "nerd" also implies social awkwardness and uncoolness, and not getting laid a lot. What I'm trying to say is, I don't like being called a nerd. Let's stop acting like we don't know it's unpleasant to call/be called a nerd.
- cortesoft 9y agoThose used to be the connotations with the word 'nerd', but they really aren't anymore. Being a 'nerd' is cool these days, and nerd has become a term of endearment.
- leeoniya 9y agothe reply was snarky because the definitions are essentially circular
- slaymaker1907 9y agoI think it means he's an expert at cybering.