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I'm not sure about the law in these situations. What happens if a hacker (right now let's not label them black or white hat just yet) decides to tell Facebook t
by skizm 13y ago
I'm not sure about the law in these situations. What happens if a hacker (right now let's not label them black or white hat just yet) decides to tell Facebook that hey know of an exploit which can gain access to anyone's account given an email address. This is a monumental bug, obviously. Is the hacker allowed to negotiate a price and then withhold the info if his demands are not met? Or is this against the law?
I would guess as long as they doesn't use the exploit or sell it to some 3rd party (nefarious or otherwise) then they should be safe, right?
- tptacek 13y agoNothing happens. He has the option of doing that. He can probably even use it as a negotiating tactic; without "force, violence, or fear", extortion probably doesn't come into the picture†, and my (IANAL) understanding is that courts read the "fear" thing narrowly, like, "fear or force or violence". What he probably can't do is threaten to sell the vulnerability to "black hats"; you can't threaten to commit a crime unless you're paid a protection fee. † Source: model jury instructions