Use a Honeypot, Go to Prison?

scubacuda writes "Using a honeypot to detect and surveil computer intruders might put you on the working end of federal wiretapping beef, or even get you sued by the next hacker that sticks his nose in the trap, according this (old) Security Focus article. Honeypots could be federal criminal law calls "interception of communications", a felony that carries up to five years in prison. Because the Federal Wiretap Act has civil provisions, as well as criminal, there's even a chance that a hacker could file a lawsuit against a honeypot operator that doesn't have their legal ducks in a row. "It would take chutzpah," said Richard Salgado, senior counsel for the Department of Justice's computer crime unit, "But there's a case where an accused kidnapper who was using a cloned cell phone sued for the interception of the cell phone conversations... And he won.""

Comments

Re:Err...

[bofkentucky]

Maybe in your pansy state/community, but where I come from, 12 of my peers would have no problem with me putting a slug or 11 through an intruder (more than 11 as soon as this stupid brady bill gets sunseted).

I submitted this 3 times and got rejected

[Devistater]

I submitted this story about 3 times right around when the first security focus article came out. All 3 got rejected. Dangit.