Clean Needles for Hackers

scubacuda writes "Jon Lasser of the Register opines that we should "give up on the notion that computer security can be improved by putting more people in prison." He argues that a "harm reduction" approach (similar to that of "clean needle" campaign in the War on Drugs) might be more productive. If we, say, wrote in safer programming languages, used tools like Immunix's StackGuard, ProPolice, or OpenBSD 3.3, chroot and UML, we could reduce the damage a malicious hacker might do without damaging our civil liberities."

Comments

Re:What???

[ahoehn]

I'll assume you're new here. You'll soon learn that hackers should never be put in jail. It's our right to break into improperly secured systems. It's practically written into the constitution, or at least it would be if the DMCA and RIAA hadn't removed it. Hacking = Good. Arresting Hackers = Bad. Next time read the Slashdot Necessary Moral Stances For Successful Moderation FAQ before you post.

This is stupid

[anotherone]

Instead of putting murderers behind bars, why don't we just make everyone wear bulletproof vests? We can't infringe on the rights of murderers!