The author of the popular freeware hacking tool Nmap warned users this week that FBI agents are increasingly seeking access to information from the server logs of his download site, insecure.org.



"I may be forced by law to comply with legal, properly served subpoenas," wrote "Fyodor," the 27-year-old Silicon Valley coder responsible for the port scanning tool, in a mailing list message. "At the same time, I'll try to fight anything too broad... Protecting your privacy is important to me, but Nmap users should be savvy enough to know that all of your network activity leave traces."

Probably the most widely-used freeware hacking tool, Nmap is a sophisticated port scanner that sends packets to a machine, or a network of machines, in an attempt to discern what services are running and to make an educated guess about the operating system. An Nmap port scan is a common prelude to an intrusion attempt, and the tool is popular both with security professionals performing penetration tests, and genuine intruders with mischief in their hearts.

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