In recent months, hackers of all backgrounds have been forced to rethink their practices while facing a roundhouse combination of the DMCA, heightened law enforcement activity and deeper scrutiny by employers.. . .
In recent months, hackers of all backgrounds have been forced to rethink their practices while facing a roundhouse combination of the DMCA, heightened law enforcement activity and deeper scrutiny by employers.

The issue pits two extremes against one another. At one end are the corporate-security experts who wear their metaphorical white hats because they adhere strictly to regulations and tend to believe that software vulnerabilities should be disclosed only to the software maker or a trusted third party. At the other are the black hats who are generally interested only in gaining access and breaking security.

In the middle are the gray hats, who are finding their once-acceptable acts, such as informing the public of company security holes, could now land them in jail.

Even the White House has weighed in on the controversy. While acknowledging the need for third-party discovery of flaws, President Bush's cybersecurity team believes that more stringent ethics need to be the rule, rather than the exception.