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A couple parallels: - companies selling 0-day malware/spyware to U.S. Government - companies offering software to 'root' a device to extract information (cell
by nawtacawp 9y ago
A couple parallels:
- companies selling 0-day malware/spyware to U.S. Government
- companies offering software to 'root' a device to extract information (cell phone data extraction), used by law enforcement.
- doktrin 9y agoHow are these parallels?
- nawtacawp 9y agoThere are companies providing tools to 'hack' other devices/systems -- and they sell those tools to the U.S. Government. Similar to what Mr. Hutchins is being accused of, only the U.S. Government wasn't a customer.
- doktrin 9y ago> only the U.S Government wasn't a customer Are we going to start pretending the identity of the customer or employer doesn't matter? It's accepted practice for the government to have a monopoly on certain goods & services.
- nawtacawp 9y agoIt boils down to what Mr. Hutchins thought the buyers were going to do with the malware. Were they going to use it for malicious purposes or was it for educational use? If Mr. Hutchins was selling malware to the U.S. Government, then his thought would more likely be it was to be used for malicious purposes. i.e espionage. However, this is not illegal -- but the other is?
- doktrin 9y agoThere are some things you can only sell to certain customers. All of those things could, in theory, be used for "educational" purposes. I can't legally manufacture & sell anthrax to my neighbor even if he swears on a bible that he only intends to study it.
- throwaway2016a 9y agoThat is like saying that companies should be allowed to sell tanks to anyone they want.
- nawtacawp 9y agoExcept a tank only has one purpose. Malware could be used for educational, hardening security, or malicious intent.
- shallot_router 9y agoExcept neither of those cases involve making software to be sold for purposes of common theft and fraud.
- wu-ikkyu 9y agoThose exploits could be used for theft and fraud, and many other malicious things