OSEC

Neohapsis is currently accepting applications for employment. For more information, please visit our website www.neohapsis.com or email hr@neohapsis.com
 
Re: [Full-Disclosure] If Lycos can attack spammer sites, can we all start doing it?

From: Ansgar Esztermann (ansgarthphy.uni-duesseldorf.de)
Date: Thu Dec 02 2004 - 05:02:51 CST

On Thu, Dec 02, 2004 at 08:57:24AM -0000, Adam Challis wrote:
> >The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
> (http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/1030_new.html).
>
> Being based in Germany, wouldn't they be subject to German and EU law?
>
> Does anybody know which German and EU laws are relevant to MLNS?

IANAL, but maybe Par. 303a StGB fits:

|Datenveränderung
|
|(1) Wer rechtswidrig Daten (§ 202a Abs. 2) löscht, unterdrückt,
|unbrauchbar macht oder verändert, wird mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu zwei
|Jahren oder mit Geldstrafe bestraft.

"Anyone who unlawfully deletes, suppresses, makes unusable or changes
data is subject to a prison sentence of up to two years or a fine."

Maybe a DOS counts as "suppressing data"

There is also Par. 303b:

|(1) Wer eine Datenverarbeitung, die für einen fremden Betrieb, ein
|fremdes Unternehmen oder eine Behörde von wesentlicher Bedeutung ist,
|dadurch stört, daß er
|
| 1. eine Tat nach § 303a Abs. 1 begeht oder
| 2. eine Datenverarbeitungsanlage oder einen Datenträger
| zerstört, beschädigt, unbrauchbar macht, beseitigt oder
| verändert,
|
|wird mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu fünf Jahren oder mit
|Geldstrafe bestraft.
         
"(1) Anyone who disturbs a computer system that is essential for a
company or an agency by
 
 1. committing a crime as set forth in Par. 303a (1) or
 2. destroying, damaging, making unusable, taking away, or changing a
 computer system or media [for data storage]

is subject to a prison sentence of up to five years or a fine."

In a way, a DOS attack does make a computer system unusable.
But then again, I don't know how a lawyer (or a judge) would see these
things.

BTW, in both cases, the attempt is also subject to punishment.

A.

--
Ansgar Esztermann
Researcher & Sysadmin
http://www2.thphy.uni-duesseldorf.de/~ansgar

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFBrvZbobc3vX8xLXcRAu3UAJ9TiFldCkgIUXiIrLcFGZIjLGp6mACeLWm/
jolssPNhjDZk0C0TGyv5MeM=
=SsmK
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html