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                Date: 2000-05-16
                 
                 
                Cybercrime Convention als Unsicherheitsfaktor
                
                 
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      Für Bruce Schneier ist das geplante Verbot fürt "Hacker- 
Tools" in der Cybercrime-Convention des Europarats/G-8  ein  
klassicher Fall, das Kind mit dem Bade aus zu schütten.   
Damit würden Security Tools illegalisiert, die zur Abwehr  
echter Angriffswaffen auf Netze nötig seinen. 
 
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The Council of Europe has released a draft of a proposed  
treaty on crime in cyberspace.  (The Council of Europe  
consists of over 40 signatory nations, including the U.S.,  
Canada, Japan, Russia, and South Africa.) While well- 
intentioned, it has a provision that could effectively cripple  
research. 
 
The offending paragraph states: 
 
> Article 6 Illegal Devices > > Each Party shall adopt such  
legislative and other measures as > may be necessary to  
establish as criminal offences under its > domestic law when  
committed intentionally and without right: > > a.the  
production, sale, procurement for use, import, > distribution  
or otherwise making available of: > > 1.a device, including a  
computer program, designed > or adapted [specifically]  
[primarily] [particularly] for the > purpose of committing any  
of the offences established in > accordance with Article 2 
 
This would make it illegal to create, post, or download any  
piece of software that is "designed or adapted" to break into  
computer systems. 
 
This is one of those "throwing the baby out with the  
bathwater" sorts of provisions. 
 
Many legitimate computer-security tools -- vulnerability  
scanners, for example -- fall into this category.  So does  
most of the computer-security research that discovers and  
fixes existing vulnerabilities.  The effects of this treaty, if  
enforced, will only enable more insecure software. 
 
I don't see how this law will affect the computer criminals.   
They're already distributing attack tools, and most of them do  
so anonymously.  This will primarily affect legitimate  
computer-security research. 
 
Treaty:  
<http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/projets/cybercrime.htm> 
 
News article:  
<http://wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36047,00.html> 
 
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edited by Harkank 
published on: 2000-05-16 
comments to office@quintessenz.at
                   
                  
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