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On Thu, 6 Sep 2001, abel wrote:

> If someone threatens me with a gun, according to the laws of most
> countries, I am allowed to defend myself, even if it is by blowing his
> head off with a bigger gun.

        True, but the law does not afford you the latitude to shoot said
offender in the back. And regardless of the justification for the
counterattack in such cases, you can bet you'll be spending a good deal of
time and money defending yourself before a Grand Jury.

        The same is true in cases of digital counterattack. Sure, you'll
feel like you're "doing something" and all that, but don't act surprised
when the boys at the Bureau cast the Great Hairy Eyeball your way. You
may feel yourself totally absolved of wrong, but don't count on anyone at
any LEA feeling the same way. Sure, there are clear-cut cases of defense,
but this isn't one of them.

> Why would we look upon the idea of a "code-green" variant, whichever it
> will be as "immoral" and "unethical" ?

        I don't. I instead look on it as wholly inadvisable. The mother
of these sorts of inventions isn't necessity; it's frustration. Sure, I
understand the angst of seeing one's systems repeatedly scanned by the
Win2K box down the pipe, but that doesn't mean it's a Good Idea(tm) to
break into that box and have it rattle off unauthorized activities against
other systems (which is essentially what Code Red *and* Code Green do).

> If your son decides to have unprotected sex at age 15, do you hand him a
> condom and explain why he should use, despite the fact that he is
> legally to young ? Or do you let him do whatever he had planned and run
> the risk of catching another sort of virus ?

        That analogy is grossly flawed. Try another one. Peer systems on
the 'net aren't even remotely the digital equivalent of your children.

- -Jay

  ( ( _______
  )) )) .--"There's always time for a good cup of coffee"--. >====<--.
C|~~|C|~~| (>------ Jay D. Dyson -- jdysontreachery.net ------<) | = |-'
 `--' `--' `--- Failure is never as devastating as regret. ---' `------'

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