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Security Researcher Faces Jail For Finding Bugs
An anonymous reader writes "French security researcher Guillaume Tena, who is working at Harvard University, faces 4 months in prison after being sued by Tegam for reverse engineering its Viguard antivirus software and publishing exploit codes for a number of vulnerabilities. According to a ZDNet article, he could also be sued by Tegam for 900,000 euros in damages. More details are available (in french) on Guillaume's website and on the K-OTik's website."
And I thought European courts are a little less boneheaded?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Will the little Dutch boy be executed for sticking his finger in the dike?
Depends, does this happen in a red state or a blue state?
No, but these two chicks up stairs will be if they keep it up...
Stories like this are just the Slashdot editors' way of warning us to shut up already about the Firefox rendering errors on this site. 8^)
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
Tobacco companies are now suing medical research facilities............phockin' pikers....
How dare G. W. Bush and his Homeland Security cronies lock up a researcher, for just trying to help protect people from these terrible security flaws. When I hear stories like this, I think the U.S. is becoming more and more like Nazi Germany.
Oh, wait? It was in France? Oh, my bad, I guess it was a totally reasonable thing for the French government to do!
It will all work out. Next time a virus writer gets caught he'll both sue Tegam and have their officer's arrested for reverse engineering his code.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
You should do something about that cough - maybe see a doctor? I know when I cough, it's never so bad that I type out the noises. Perhaps you're using one of those voice recognition software systems? Best of luck and good health to you.
XML causes global warming.
Will the little Dutch boy be executed for sticking his finger in the dike?
As long as the dyke consented, I don't see the problem.
Ohh... dike...
You should do something about that cough - maybe see a doctor?
... maybe we'll throw some packets his way and see how he responds...
Sheesh! Obviously the fix is to take him apart piece by piece, see how he works and then try to reassemble him in a better order
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
More than mere navel gazing.
Just so we are clear on this... what happens outside the US is still important
The key for my car - Citroen BX - has opened the door for every other BX I've come across and had the permission of the owner to try. This is also common amongst a lot of Australian and Japanese built Fords from the 70s and 80s.
I recall once giving my keyring to my then girlfriend to get something out of my car. Later on that day when we went to drive somewhere, I realised that my car key wasn't actually on my keyring, and was floating loose in my pocket. I asked her, incredulously, how she'd managed to get into the car without my car key, to which she replied "oh, I just used that silver one and it worked".
My house key.
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And my guess is, that's exactly what will happen. The company made a mistake by producing flawed software. The researcher didn't make that mistake, only pointed it out. With these flaw(s) pointed out, the company didn't handle it in a grown-up manner. Instead of fixing the mistake, focusses on attacking the messenger. Dumb: mistake #2, again made by the company. And only makes the problem worse.
KIRK: "Tegam, what is your purpose?"
TEGAM: "We are Te-Gam. We produce perfect software. We sterilize imperfections."
KIRK: "Tegam, you produced flawed software. You are imperfect.
TEGAM: "We are Te-Gam. We are perfect. We sterilize imperfections."
KIRK: "Tegam, you produced flawed software. That was your first mistake. You released the software without realizing this. That was your second mistake."
TEGAM: "Error! Error!"
KIRK: "Tegam, you handled the Tena situation in a childish manner. Instead of fixing your mistake, you focused on attacking the messenger. You sued the messenger. That was your third mistake.
TEGAM: "Error! Error! Faulty! Faulty! Must sterilize!"
Hey, thanks for shifting the curve in school. It's idiots like you that helped me get decent grades.
Me, I truly believe information should be free, and only personal information (like, your bank account #'s, passcodes, etc) has any business being private. I'm a big supporter of all our little neo-communist mechanisms in the OSS movement. But really...don't get ownership of a car confused with ownership of software.
/. that:
Wow, you wrote a post on
1. stated that software is *not* like a car
2. mentioned OSS and communism in the same sentence
and you were modded informative, not flamebait?!? You, my friend, are truly a god among gods.
-a
Does this mean there's an opening for crypto research at Harvard now? Do you have to be a goddamed foreigner to apply, or have they started accepting Americans again?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
And that's why I try my bike lock key in every vending machine and elevator I happen across because someday I'm going to find my free cokes and override everyone's car calls.
Or have they brought back debtor's prison?
It is not a prison it is a Freedom Centre.
Nothing to see here Citizen, move along.
I did the same thing on an old-style mini maybe 20 years back ... except in my case it was "shit we don't have a radio ...."
for reverse engineering their viruses.
I don't know about you, but I would always prefer to know well in advance if my car was either easy to steal or about to explode.
Ahhhhh, but if it was both easy to steal and about to explode, well, that problem just sort of solves itself, no?
Yeah, any Ford key used to fit any Ford lock. Once, my mother's car was off the road so she got a lift to work off a colleague in his Cortina {so you know how long ago this was}. At lunchtime, she borrowed his car to go somewhere. He chucked her the keys and off she went ..... A quarter of an hour later, he went out to the car park. His car was still there. My mum was nowhere in sight. Odd. At the end of the lunch hour, she pulled up in a Ford Escort. Not even a Cortina, an Escort! She was mortified when she found out what she had done. But there was worse to come ..... At the end of the shift, someone else's car was missing! The Escort she drove back from the shops was not even the same one she had driven off in .....
Moral: Any Ford key fits any Ford lock. Or at least, it used to until "joyriding" was invented.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!