Cyber-crime laws and cops are now targeting those who write and distribute hacker toolkits. Currently, the case helping to establish a precedent on how authors of virus toolkits will be prosecuted in the UK is the case involving the author of . . .
Cyber-crime laws and cops are now targeting those who write and distribute hacker toolkits. Currently, the case helping to establish a precedent on how authors of virus toolkits will be prosecuted in the UK is the case involving the author of "TOrnkit", a suite of programs designed to enable hackers to hide their presence on cracked Linux computers. The law being used to prosecute the 21-year-old author of this toolkit, who Scotland Yard nabbed last week in a London suburb, is the 1990 Computer Misuse Act. How this law is interpreted with regard to "TOrnkit" will go a long way in setting the playing field for the prosecution of other authors of "hacker-helper" code.

Dave Dittrich, University of Washington's senior security engineer commented. "Most of the versions (of TOrnkit and other hacker toolkit software) are circulated in the (hacker) underground, and they're tightly held."

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