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The short answer is that they're all illegal. If you're in the United States, you might consider reading the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act http://en.wikipedia.or

The short answer is that they're all illegal. If you're in the United States, you might consider reading the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act But seriously--anything you might consider "subversive hacking" is illegal. I'm trying to think of an exception, and one really isn't coming to mind. It's legal to port scan people, but scanning the government or military is sort of asking for trouble. It is easy to get caught if you don't know how to cover your tracks. I'm not going to give more details on not getting caught doing illegal things, because that's not how I roll. I work in information security, and would love to point you in the direction of legal (but still cool) resources. One popular resource is the Offensive Security Metasploit Unleashed course http://www.offensive-security.com/metasploit-unleashed/Metasploit_Unleashed_Information_Security_Training http://www.offensive-security.com/metasploit-unleashed/Metas... -- It's well written and teaches you pretty much all there is to know about Metasploit, from basic usage to advanced scripting. Hope that helps a little bit, and remember--the knowledge isn't illegal, but breaking into systems without propor authorization is. Don't throw away a bright future because you want to see what's on some random box.

bendmorris 16y ago
Thank you - that's just the kind of reference I was looking for.
MoreMoschops 16y ago
"But seriously--anything you might consider "subversive hacking" is illegal." What are you counting as "hacking"? Hacking together some encryption software to retain privacy from an intrusive government is subversive and, in many countries, legal.
- david_shaw 16y ago
  Well, first of all, if you're writing crypto software to avoid an intrusive government, then said government would probably make that software illegal. My goal was actually to show (as you're rightly pointing out) that there are lots of cool security related hacks that one can do legally. The poster, though, was asking about DDoS, form stuffing and otherwise "black hat" activities in relation to the law. You can't DDoS or exploit software on systems that you don't have permission to test, nor can you stuff forms to defraud advertisement providers like Adsense. Spamming email is illegal as well. I'm not trying to argue the semantics of "hacker" and "cracker" and "script kiddie." Hacker News refers to hacker in its original sense, where as I perceive the poster to be asking about security related practices.

bendmorris 16y ago

Thank you - that's just the kind of reference I was looking for.

MoreMoschops 16y ago

"But seriously--anything you might consider "subversive hacking" is illegal." What are you counting as "hacking"? Hacking together some encryption software to retain privacy from an intrusive government is subversive and, in many countries, legal.

david_shaw 16y ago
Well, first of all, if you're writing crypto software to avoid an intrusive government, then said government would probably make that software illegal. My goal was actually to show (as you're rightly pointing out) that there are lots of cool security related hacks that one can do legally. The poster, though, was asking about DDoS, form stuffing and otherwise "black hat" activities in relation to the law. You can't DDoS or exploit software on systems that you don't have permission to test, nor can you stuff forms to defraud advertisement providers like Adsense. Spamming email is illegal as well. I'm not trying to argue the semantics of "hacker" and "cracker" and "script kiddie." Hacker News refers to hacker in its original sense, where as I perceive the poster to be asking about security related practices.