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U.S. Computer Security Advisor Encourages Hackers

Posted by timothy on from the grain-of-salt-to-choke-a-volcano dept.

DarklordSatin writes: "According to this Associated Press article, which I was pointed to by the nice guys over at Ars Technica, Richard Clarke, Dubya's Computer Security Advisor, wants to encourage hackers to find security holes in software. Although he feels that the system only works when the hackers show 'good faith' and disclose the holes to the company before the public, he wants to start offering more legal protection to hackers and that is a very good step in the right direction." As the folks at Ars point out, though, "Naturally, Mr. Clark was using the original, more generalized, definition of "hacker", but I guess saying 'Bush Adviser Encourages Discovery of Software Bugs' just didn't have enough zing."

4 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Or maybe it's... by eyepeepackets · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Richarrd Clarke saying, "I have a cunning plan!"

    --
    Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
  2. NPR Article by ctmacgyver1 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    There is an interesting NPR interview of Richard Clarke Here regarding his comments.

    Listen to exactly what he says.

    He is not encouraging reverse engineering products to find their security weaknesses. He is only encouraging those who accidently find weaknesses to responsibly report them.

    Cheers

  3. Re:Ethics by Irvu · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    supprised not suppeised (whoops!)

  4. What's with insulting "Dubya" talk? by Chuck+Messenger · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Was there a particular reason to be insulting Bush? Or is that just sort of taken as given -- that we all hate Bush?