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What's the thought process for writing/selling malware to be illegal? What if the buyers wanted to test their own systems? What if they simply bought it to stud
by lone_haxx0r 7y ago
What's the thought process for writing/selling malware to be illegal? What if the buyers wanted to test their own systems? What if they simply bought it to study it? Hutchins didn't necessarily know that it was going to be used illegaly. Should nmap, aircrack-ng et al be illegal too?
- rayiner 7y agoIt is, in general, not illegal to write/sell something that can be used to commit a crime. What’s illegal is creating or selling tools to knowingly knowingly facilitate crimes. (Selling guns isn’t illegal, and indeed is constitutionally protected. Selling a gun to known mobsters under circumstances where one can reasonably conclude you knew they were going to use it to commit crimes, that’s illegal.) In this case, Hutchins created Malware capable of stealing banking information and worked with a friend to market it to people who would use it to steal banking information: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/wannacry-slayer-malware-author-marcus-hutchins-sentenced-to-time-served https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/wannacry-slayer-....
- pvg 7y agoMaybe the cases of the secret car compartment makers are a good example as well - the 'tool' there is thoroughly harmless in itself.
- tedunangst 7y agoWe might consider where tools like nmap are advertised. The language used.