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Congressman Proposes Organizations Should Be Allowed To 'Hack Back' (engadget.com)

Engadget reports: Representative Tom Graves, R-Ga., thinks that when anyone gets hacked -- individuals or companies -- they should be able to "fight back" and go "hunt for hackers outside of their own networks." The Active Cyber Defense Certainty ("ACDC") Act is getting closer to being put before lawmakers, and the congressman trying to make "hacking back" easy-breezy-legal believes it would've stopped the WannaCry ransomware. Despite its endlessly lulzy acronym, Graves says he "looks forward to formally introducing ACDC" to the House of Representatives in the next few weeks... The bipartisan ACDC bill would let companies who believe they are under ongoing attack break into the computer of whoever they think is attacking them, for the purposes of stopping the attack or gathering info for law enforcement.
Friday The Hill published a list of objections to the proposed law from the CEO of cybersecurity company Vectra Networks. "To start with, when shooting back, there's the fundamental question of who to shoot... We might be able to retaliate, weeks or months after being attacked, but we certainly could not shoot back in time to stop an attack in progress." And if new retaliatory tools are developed, "How can we be sure that these new weapons won't be stolen and misused? Who can guarantee that they won't be turned against us by our corporate competitors? Would we become victims of our own cyber-arms race?"

Slashdot reader hattable writes, "I would think a proposal like this would land dead in the water, but given some recent, and 'interesting' decisions coming from Congress and White House officials, I am not sure many can predict the momentum."

189 comments

  1. Alice Bob etc. by bugs2squash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So if Mallory hacks bob, who turns around and mistakenly hacks Alice, who then fights back until Bob and Carol are destroyed. Whom does Carol Sue ?

    --
    Nullius in verba
    1. Re:Alice Bob etc. by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 2

      I imagine that depends on the details of how the law is written. Unless it specifies otherwise, I would assume that if they hit the wrong target, then they'd be civilly liable under regular tort laws.

      Though IMO this could be viable if it was restricted to surveillance, and only against foreign targets that don't have any kind of extradition treaty with the US.

    2. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Or Mallory gets Bob to hack him in a false flag attack so he can hack Alice.... If you're legalizing US companies to attack 'foreign' companies, you're also protecting foreign companies that hack US ones in retaliation.

      IMHO, Google's self driving car tech is underpinning Uber's Yandex's self driving car tech and Baidu's self driving car tech. Courtesy of General Alexander leaving US corporations open to known backdoors.

      How would Google 'hacking back' actually stop that damage?

      And then there's the orange elephant in the room, what if the damage is so egrarious that attacking enemies become best buddies and close allies become targets of attack?

      I'm waiting for Trump's report saying the election was attacked by France, and Russian detection was only inadvertent attempts to secure our networks remotely.

    3. Re:Alice Bob etc. by ls671 · · Score: 1

      Just send your resume to my homepage. You ain't so far from the truth after all.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    4. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Whom does Carol Sue ?

      No one. Carol is just fucked. Alice can claim she was hacking Bob, and therefore covered. Mallory is free to try again, and Bob is screwed and gets bad press.

    5. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Calydor · · Score: 2

      They probably just have to pinky-finger swear they thought it was the right target, just like with the DMCA.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    6. Re:Alice Bob etc. by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Informative

      There's this farmer in the Netherlands, who has received multiple legal threats from companies for hacking.

      The reason? His farm is near the centroid geo-coordinate for the Netherlands. Which means that if somebody tries to look up an IP in a GeoIP database and that database does not have more accurate data than "This IP is in the Netherlands", it will report back the centroid geo-coordinate for the Netherlands. If just happens there is an actual building near this centroid.

      Wonder how well such a law would work with dumb companies (i.e. the vast majority) being DDOS'ed with spoofed IP's.

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    7. Re: Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Itll be an opt-in checkbox

    8. Re:Alice Bob etc. by wierd_w · · Score: 1

      Similar for some poor old lady living in central Kansas.
      The state of Kansas is on top of the geocentroid of the continental US, and the same thing happens to her farm there.

      http://fusion.kinja.com/how-an...

      She's even had "things" delivered to her property from very angry people.

    9. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait a minute now, who the hell is Mallory? Bob is married to Carol, and Ted is married to Alice, and they hack at each other throughout the movie.
      I just checked the IMDB- not a trace of a Mallory...
      OMG! The IMDB has been hacked!

    10. Re:Alice Bob etc. by tchdab1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      The bible says a hack for a hack makes the whole world go blue screen.

    11. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the plus side, noone would ever be able to be convicted of hacking any three letter government agency ever again.

    12. Re:Alice Bob etc. by MrMr · · Score: 1

      If you ignore the capitalization the answer is Alice, if you don't, the question mark is spurious.

    13. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Carol could sue Mallory in theory, but she's unlikely to have the logs to prove it.

      Alice and Bob are both protected because they were just responding to that cyber thing.

      I never believed them when they said cybering could make the world go blind, but now I'm starting to understand it.

    14. Re:Alice Bob etc. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      There's one of those in many countries. People don't look up a satellite image to see if the market hits a house. Often the co-ordinate is resolvable to a street address regardless of where on property it lands.

    15. Re:Alice Bob etc. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      That only works if the second last person is running Windows inside a Linux VM. Otherwise there's no system left to hack back the last person not bluescreened.

    16. Re:Alice Bob etc. by cdrudge · · Score: 2

      I feel really sorry for the inhabitants on Null Island. I bet they are harassed everyday non-stop.

    17. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carol would sue eve, because she was listening to everything but did't do shit!

    18. Re:Alice Bob etc. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      All that would do is escalate the situation to a state of open (cyber) warfare.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    19. Re:Alice Bob etc. by sabbede · · Score: 1

      What a strange name. I've never heard of a "Carol Sue", and I live in the South.

    20. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More like just look for the correct targets and laugh maniacally when targeting the "fun-sized" ones as they push the button.

      TL;DR If they hack someone innocent, it's collateral damage as always (they had good intentions, so that makes it ok!), but if YOU hack someone innocent, you'll be held fully liable for it. (Your excuses don't count, unless you know someone in a high place.)

    21. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about both systems attack simultaneously ?

      It should work with a DOS type exploit that doesn't require a full handshake, something like the good old Terdrop.

    22. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not what you do. The hack-back idea is to disable whatever box is actively attacking you. You don't turn it into geo-addresses and attack whatever is there.

    23. Re:Alice Bob etc. by ripvlan · · Score: 1

      exactly!! This sounds like a great idea as long as the revenge hacking isn't granted indemnification. It'd be like a bar room brawl. I can see the web-ads now "Under attack? click here to fix your network!"

    24. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      I never believed them when they said cybering could make the world go blind, but now I'm starting to understand it.

      Nah, that's referring to porn. The trick is to stop at the point you only need glasses.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    25. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Phusion · · Score: 1

      Regardless of how the law is written, this is going to be a giant cluster fuck if it's passed. While I'm all for investigating intrusions, the language of the law "hack back" is just absolutely terrible and will most likely cause a host of new problems.

      --
      640k ought to be enough for anyone.
    26. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or,

      So if Mallory hacks bobs network from Alice PC, and bob turns around and hacks Alice destroying vital files or getting her named on a no knock warrant. How do stop Mallory from hacking anyone when she just jumps to Carols PC? And who pays for Alice aftercare of being swatted and losing her banking info, family photos...etc.

    27. Re: Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It'll be an opt-in checkbox

      And there will be many other things included that aren't really relevant to the choice you want to make when you accept the opt-in choice. Think of any DMCA. >:(

    28. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not what you do. The hack-back idea is to disable whatever box is actively attacking you. You don't turn it into geo-addresses and attack whatever is there.

      And how would you be able to find out which "box" was actively attacking you? Do you think a hacker would leave a trail to get back at him/her? How about DDos? You are going to attack back to all those infected boxes that kept sending the signal to your server???

      By the way, the bill may not state anything about how to retaliate. The info from a hacker may contain an IP address (digital address). Then the victim of the hack may claim that those who use the IP address (wherever they live) are the attackers. This bill would allow the person to retaliate whether or not the people who live at that IP address are the real culprit. That's the concern of how you tie digital and physical address together nowadays (even though it is inaccurate).

    29. Re:Alice Bob etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah but that also begs the question:
      if as a copyright holder (ergo a business that is protecting IP on my system) I get mistakenly hacked back by a company do I now have full rights to hack the company that mistakenly hacked me back?

    30. Re:Alice Bob etc. by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      TL;DR If they hack someone innocent, it's collateral damage as always (they had good intentions, so that makes it ok!), but if YOU hack someone innocent

      No, that wouldn't fly. Physical security at major corporations for example can tackle e.g. shoplifters, people not being where they're supposed to be, etc, or even issue a citizens arrest and whatnot, but they can be held civily liable under tort laws if they bust a guy who didn't do anything wrong.

  2. Serious question by kelanos · · Score: 2

    Wasn't there something like this that was actually passed into law? Or at least there was something like this that was proposed and got support last season

    1. Re:Serious question by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      "Bill Would Legalize Active Defense Against Hacks" (March 04, 2017)
      https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re: Serious question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bill is such an asshole.

      Whole gave Bill the right to make things legal or illegal anyway?

  3. lets just not stop there... by starblazer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    let's extend the law so that if someone is breaking into their house, we can break into theirs! gather our own evidence! EYE FOR AN EYE!

    1. Re:lets just not stop there... by sabbede · · Score: 1
      Well, in California (of all places) you're allowed to do all sorts of things to recover stolen property. Including breaking into the thieve's house to take it back, and if necessary, shooting them in the process.

      Why not extend that to digital theft?

    2. Re:lets just not stop there... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      It's really not the same thing. Thinking beyond the surface it's not even a good analogy.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  4. Looking for excuses... by hackingbear · · Score: 2

    ... to launch another Iraq War on fake accusation. Look, IP address is such an indisputable evidence!

    1. Re:Looking for excuses... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ... to launch another Iraq War on fake accusation. Look, IP address is such an indisputable evidence!

      Especially when the IP addresses are "Russian"!!!

  5. *facepalms* by DivineKnight · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The monumental amount of stupi-....one of the first things a 'hacker' does when launching an attack is obscure their origins. They use someone else's machine, like a University's, or a Hospital's, or even one owned by the Department of Defense. And you want to hand people a license to f*ck up what they 'think' (and I use that word broadly here) might be attacking them? How is the DoD going to react to Pfizer launching an all out assault on them because they 'think' an attack is coming from some DoD machines?

    It takes weeks, months, possibly more to track down the owners of Botnets, from which Distributed Denial of Service attacks may be launched from zombified machines. That requires investigation, international at times.

    And we don't need any laws for what is already an illegal practice.

    1. Re: *facepalms* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well.

      u don't understand shit about compromising an org

      the first thing u do is make a compromise

      the second thing u do is establish persistence in a manner that has nothing to do with bot nets.

      the third thing is u pivot to somewhere not even remotely associated with how u got in or where u have a nice persistent entry point

      then u do what u want. It's callled a kill chain and it's how APT actors roll. You are talking amateur level bullshit

    2. Re: *facepalms* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You would've sounded a lot more intelligent if you had used 1337 speak instead of bad grammar and incorrect spelling.

      On the other hand, you do sound like you could have had a starring role in the movie 'Hackers'. :)

    3. Re:*facepalms* by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      It's like reacting to a live shooter event with cluster bombs. But yay, number one and FREEDOM!

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re:*facepalms* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The monumental amount of stupi-....one of the first things a 'hacker' does when launching an attack is obscure their origins. They use someone else's machine

      Suddenly hackers are smart enough to spoof their origins? It's hard to keep up these days. When the US Democrats or Macron got hacked every little flimsy hint of Russia was proof enough of their irrefutable guilt.

      In the end it's political bullshit all the way down. Obvious fallacies are quickly ignored if it fits the agenda.

    5. Re:*facepalms* by Maritz · · Score: 1

      The monumental amount of stupi-....one of the first things a 'hacker' does when launching an attack is obscure their origins.

      Lawyers like to think that they're clever. Like most 'clever' people they do not see the gigantic holes in their knowledge. It could be offset by maybe having the odd lawmaker who is not a lawyer, but what do you think the chances of that are? lol.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    6. Re: *facepalms* by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Don't make him bust out his 28.8kbaud modem on your ass.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    7. Re:*facepalms* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep in mind this is a country that already misuses the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to go after individuals and not corporations. I mean, running adware on my PC and having to figure out a way around barriers to doing so that I put in place seems like "accessing a protected computer" to me, but God forbid we go after corporate citizens who obviously have more rights than we do.

      So if Mallory attacks Bob and Bob fights back then Bob will probably go to jail, whereas if Mallory attacks Bob, Inc. and Bob, Inc. fights back, well, that's OK because freedom and capitalism.

    8. Re: *facepalms* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      His chatroom friends are all dsl or better.

    9. Re:*facepalms* by cdrudge · · Score: 1

      I'd say it's more like reacting to a live shooter by potentially days or weeks after you were shot at, you fire either a few shots back or drop a cluster bomb to where the "live" shooter was. By the time you can trace back and launch a counter measure, the actual perpetrator is likely long gone.

      The only way a counter attack helps is if the attack is ongoing and coming from the same source. I'd venture that probably rarely happens in a easily counterattack-able way. It's hard to counterattack thousands or millions of attackers with a DDOS botnet.

    10. Re:*facepalms* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your information is out of date. I'm not kidding either. The hackers are now brazen and accustomed to a world without consequences; they do not fear being identified, unmasked, or prosecuted. Law enforcement hasn't been effective enough make them afraid.

      What do you think Advanced Persistent Threats are all about? Once a hacker adopts the APT paradigm, they are willing to stand and fight, which means they can be at least nominally identified. Seriously, do you think we are "unable" to follow a packet to it's destination, just because IP addresses can be spoofed?

      There are major jurisdictions where hacking is condoned or at least tolerated. There are multiple other jurisdictions where law enforcement is lacking due to war, chaos, or corruption.

      I wish the hackers needed to obscure their identities, but often they don't.

    11. Re:*facepalms* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you are saying that it might not be the Russians that hacked Hillary's elections?

    12. Re:*facepalms* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am replying anonymously because my handle is too easily tied to my company name.

      We have reverse infected several hackers with simple honey pots at the request of our clients. We didn't ask Congress for permission. We are not the only ones who do this, I'm sure.

      Which makes this legislation even more monumentally stupid. Hey, let's pass a law that outlaws phishing attacks! How about a law that forces everyone to apply security updates within 48 hours? Such idiocy...

  6. Why not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If someone thinks they can set up a c2 channel to something I care about, only that's a trick and I can learn their auth and control codes, why shouldn't I reciprocate?

  7. AC/DC? by viperidaenz · · Score: 2, Funny

    But is it really going to be any good without Brian Johnson? Can Angus Young fill his shoes?

    1. Re:AC/DC? by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      Zombie Bon Scott will save us all!

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    2. Re:AC/DC? by bursch-X · · Score: 1

      Ride on.

      --
      There are two rules for success:
      1. Never tell everything you know.
  8. Government exception? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If not, does that mean when being hacked/spied/wiretapped by a government agency, we can fight back?

    When the RNC spams, links to some partisan fake news, and their linked page hosts a malicious ad or simply bad code that resource hogs, we can DoS their ass, since that would impede spread of said malicious code?

    Can we go after robocallers too, since they largely use IP networks anyways? Is the FCC fair game if they allow no ring voicemail spamming?

    And instead of blocking and rate limiting DoS attacks from bot networks, we can flood everyone's freaking lines in response. And then those networks in turn can respond back. The cascade, the snowball effect would result in one hell of an avalanche.

    This is freaking brilliant, and by that, an utterly brain-dead stupid idea.

  9. Re:It's not just or 'for the little guy' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No one. She's not an organization, she's a peasant.

    Viacom could hack you under these rules for "believing in good faith" that you may be suspected of possibly being related to an attack on them, and do whatever they want.

    You want to defend yourself from this sudden intrusion and figure out who that was, maybe drag them to court over this illegal hacking?
    Yeah no. You're a criminal under the CFAA now.

  10. Certainty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Active Cyber Defense Certainty Act

    There is no certainty in "cyber" defense.

    1. Re:Certainty? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      There isn't any cyber either. Unless you take the definition of "cyber" from our internal use dictionary where it's defined as "I don't know what I'm talking about but want to sound cool".

      It's right next to the definition of "cloud" which means "I don't understand storage".

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Certainty? by Megol · · Score: 1

      Cyber is short for Cybernetic which is the study of flow and control/regulation of those flows. A network connected computer is obviously a cybernetic system as is a worm or a human, an oscillator or a clock.

      But I agree that it obviously was used by someone that just thought it sounded cool, replacing it with "Computer" would be much better.

    3. Re:Certainty? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      "Cyber" is a buzzword. Much like the Cloud, the Internet of Things or Web 2.0. Usually used by people who can barely spell it correctly, let alone use it in any sensible context.

      Basically it has turned into yet another square at the weekly bullshit bingo speech from marketing.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  11. We are on the highway to hell sue them all! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Funny

    We are on the highway to hell sue them all!

  12. oh I can't WAIT for this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Invitation to be a hacker with no possible penalties? You men the US will stand up and protect uyou if that system you hack back is the Chinese government? Or what if it's AWS? Hack away! Launch a DDOS! Ooooo what's this one? Global Thermonuclear War!

    A STRANGE GAME
    THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY.

  13. The story misses the really big concern, IMHO by gweilo8888 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The big issue isn't the question of who to shoot (what's it matter if you take a while to get them, so long as you get the right people?). It's also not "How can we stop the tools being misused", because the simple truth is that we can't, and that they'll get their hands on tools like this even if we don't pass this moronically-named act.

    The real concern is that we're trusting big business to use this appropriately. I can guarantee that it won't. The RIAA and MPAA are probably wetting their pants in anticipation of this so they can start hacking internet users to get their identity and extort money out of them, for example. I'm sure they can manufacture some evidence that they were "hacked first". Companies will also be using it against each other. (Microsoft: "No, honest guv. We saw a hacking attempt from both Google and Amazon simultaneously, with an assist from Apple too. We totally had to hack them back. It's just a coincidence that our subsequent product launches seemed almost to have anticipated our competitors' products." Etc., etc.

    Big business can't even be trusted with the tools it already has. It sure as hell doesn't need this one too!

    1. Re:The story misses the really big concern, IMHO by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Big business can't even be trusted with the tools it already has. It sure as hell doesn't need this one too!

      You know that, and I know that, but it hardly matters when they are given keys to the city with every election, does it?

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  14. What a fucking idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I could laugh at the people of Georgia for voting for Tom Graves DERRR DURRPP I AM FROM GEORGIA I AM FUCKING IDIOT DURRRRRP but truth is every state in the union votes for morons like him. In democracy you get what you vote for.
     
    China laughs and laughs and laughs.

    1. Re:What a fucking idiot by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      Why? There aren't any fools in dictatorships? DERR DURRP.

      As far as GA. Didn't you guys elect an idiot who thought Guam might tip over?

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
  15. Ask Not of Whose Face is Being Palmed by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The monumental amount of stupi-..

    Yes, it's true. That's why I come nearly every day to correct people as monumentally stupid as yourself. Such epic levels of disastrously misguided thought cannot be allowed to stand without challenge from someone with common sense and logic.

    one of the first things a 'hacker' does when launching an attack is obscure their origins. They use someone else's machine, like a University's, or a Hospital's, or even one owned by the Department of Defense. And you want to hand people a license to f*ck up what they 'think' (and I use that word broadly here) might be attacking them?

    Here's where you went full idiot. Never go full idiot.

    The attacking system is ALREADY COMPROMISED.

    Are you really so stupid you think the proposal is about attacking the actual attackers system? Apparently so.

    But no, that's not what the proposal is about. It's about being able to hack the ALREADY HACKED SYSTEM to stop it from attacking you. Yes it might be a hospital, bank, government, whatever - it's already screwed, bringing down that system does vast amounts of public good:

    1) No more attacks on you - AND on other systems it may have been attacking.
    2) Reducing danger to the org with the infected box because now it's not a portal to attack other internal systems (which sadly are already compromised, but it might be a proxy for the control mechanism so still good).
    3) Protects the users of those system from possible further spread of viruses or malware.
    4) There is a more massive indirect benefit that if systems start going down because of hacking, more companies will take IT seriously, thus over time fewer systems would be compromised to begin with. Currently it does not SEEM like there is much of a problem, because an intruder wants the system to stay online and appear to be working - even as the intruder harms others and gains deeper access.

    Any IT department SHOULD *cough*BA*cough* be able to bring up a backup system if the compromised one is taken offline. So while there may be some small outage as a result the overall good to be done is WAY more than the harm you are causing by taking a compromised system offline. You can of course tell a company you are about to take a system offline and let them do something about it if you are kind, but then again they really were not letting themselves get compromised and not detecting it so...

    How is the DoD going to react to Pfizer launching an all out assault on them

    With gratitude when they find out why. Even if begrudging.

    Also of course, while such a law would just allow you to attack compromised system every company would look at where the attack was from and decide if trying to take down the system was a good idea from a legal standpoint - you can be pretty sure a lot of people would be running CYA messages up the flagpole about taking down a system in the military or a hospital. Did you even consider that just because people CAN do something, does not mean they WILL?

    That's what I do not get about you state control fanbois, you think because you have no self control it applies to everyone else - including large companies which are the very definition of cautious with any risk.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Ask Not of Whose Face is Being Palmed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You motherfucking dipshit.

      US corporations used to LEGALLY TERRORIZE, KIDNAP, TORTURE AND MASS MURDER ITS OWN EMPLOYEES because they lobbied/bought governments at every level to turn a blind eye to it all. Why WOULDN'T they counterhack the DoD if it was LEGALLY ALLOWED?

    2. Re:Ask Not of Whose Face is Being Palmed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I didn't read the bill, but from your post it seems that the bill allows you to patch your systems once they have been hacked. Even if that is what the bill is saying, your post is still nonsensical, and calling the GP stupid was also a dead giveaway.

    3. Re:Ask Not of Whose Face is Being Palmed by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      ughh you really think organizations would put the money into doing this to botnet victims or such? fuck no.

      they would be using it to hack back at the eevil chinese or competitors they "think" the attack came from.

      the whole concept in the elected idiots head who came up with this actually depends on "Black Ice" kind of "protection software".

      which doesn't exist really. he does not understand hacking and furthermore there exists already ways to stop an attack you know the IP address for and this new stuff would not do anything about it easier, faster or safer.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    4. Re:Ask Not of Whose Face is Being Palmed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The monumental amount of stupi-..

      Yes, it's true. That's why I come nearly every day to correct people as monumentally stupid as yourself. Such epic levels of disastrously misguided thought cannot be allowed to stand without challenge from someone with common sense and logic.

      Here, have another correction for the collection.

      Yes, more than likely any attack will happen through proxies, cutouts, perhaps simply through amplification and failure to filter the egress. The ways of compromise are wide and varied. Yet we talk about them without discerning what actually happens. "We don't know what's happening except that it involves computers and we assume it is bad, we're so afraid!"

      Or in more modern parlance, "HALP TEH CYBAR R PWNIN US! HAX!"

      What is "an already hacked system"? "Hacking" means exactly zilch these days, except in a meta-sense, "I'm being stupid and/or I'm assuming you're stupid" (s/stupid/{gullible,ignorant,...}/g to taste). Calling yourself a "hacker", previously a sure sign of a poser, these days at least that plus instant loss of fourth amendmend rights for extra stupidity, is similarly a poor attempt at self-aggrandizement but mostly spectacularly stupid.

      Even the law doesn't know what this "hacking" or "hacked" is supposed to be, but it does put penalties on that something it doesn't know what it is. That's bad law if there ever was one. And its root cause is that we keep on derping, talking nonsense as if it means something when in fact it hasn't meant squat since at least 1993.

      I've been treating any discussion that involves "hack", "hacker", "hacking" in a context even slightly different from the JARGON file definition as patently content-free and devoid of useful meaning. So far I haven't been disappointed: All expectations have been met, typically well over and above spec, in fact typically doused in a thick sauce of spectacular stupidity.

      Slashdot typically doesn't disappoint on this point either, nor do various sites dedicated to "computer security".

      Want to make a difference? Do you really?

      Here's the recipe: Drop "hack", "hacking", "hacked" completely from your dictionary and henceforth only say what you know without those words. You'll quickly learn that you, and we in general, don't know squat. Nobody does.

      The obvious conclusion would be that we need to fix this first, before we even start to think about proposing doing anything else about the poor state of computer security. And yes, it will also mean dropping that awful law, replacing it with something meaningful that stands a chance of being effective. But we first have to admit that even the world's foremost experts typically conveniently forget to talk substance in this space. It's why the entire "computer security" industry is really an imperial textile cottage industry. You know, makers and purveyors of the emperor's new clothes.

      Regarding computer security, the entire world is naked and in denial.

    5. Re:Ask Not of Whose Face is Being Palmed by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Such epic levels of disastrously misguided thought cannot be allowed to stand without challenge from someone with common sense and logic.

      I'll let you know when one comes along.

      Yes it might be a hospital, bank, government, whatever - it's already screwed, bringing down that system does vast amounts of public good

      Wrong. Being used as an attack platform and the ability to perform its intended function are totally orthogonal.

      I know you don't believe in biology because lolwut monkeys, but sensible parasites don't kill their host.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    6. Re:Ask Not of Whose Face is Being Palmed by Megol · · Score: 1

      The jargon file didn't come up with the word even if it tried to influence how it was used by others.

    7. Re:Ask Not of Whose Face is Being Palmed by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Yes it might be a hospital, bank, government, whatever - it's already screwed, bringing down that system does vast amounts of public good:

      You think it's a good idea to bring down a compromised but still functional machine in a hospital?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:Ask Not of Whose Face is Being Palmed by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      exaggerate much.

      The sad sh!t would be if you're not a troll and you actually believe your idiotic rhetoric.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    9. Re:Ask Not of Whose Face is Being Palmed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, no, the word predates its existence by a goodly while.

      Doesn't change that the computer security s'kiddie, news media, hollywood, and otherwise "mainstream" use of the word quite exactly means "OHAI I NO NO WUT IM TALKIN BOOT", which is blistering irony on the original meaning in computing context, but moreover a problem in and of itself, standing in the way of doing better. This s'kiddie and mainstream usage is one of many things that prevent us from actually meaningfully improving computer security, so if we want to make progress on the latter, the former's gotta go, too.

      Why is this too hard to understand, megol? Do you like treading water? Do you crave the certainty of going nowhere?

  16. Hah by alzoron · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't this give us the authority to hack all those government agencies that have been hacking us for decades now?

  17. Ok by udachny · · Score: 1

    I'll create a GUI interface using Visual Basic to see if I can track an IP address.

    1. Re:Ok by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      ATTACK DETECTED FROM 127.0.0.1!!!!

      Proceed with nuclear launch to coordinate?

      --sf

    2. Re:Ok by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but what is the geolocation of localhost?

    3. Re:Ok by cmdr_klarg · · Score: 1

      Where's the giant, Mansley!?!?!?

      --
      THE SOFTWARE, IT NO WORKY!!!
  18. Open season on the NSA and other government orgs by misnohmer · · Score: 2

    Since we know, thanks to various whistle-blowers, that the NSA and other US government organizations have hacked most is not all US citizens, this bill would now give any citizen a reasonable belief they were hacked, therefore a legal right to hack back. Where do I sign?

  19. Re: Hypocrites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Socially acceptable and legal are two different things. A couple vigilantes forcing IoT devices to patch or go offline is much different than an IT department having permission to "hack" you. Who knows what they will do.

  20. white savior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A better bill would be one that forces the NSA and CIA to attack the malware artists instead of creating the attack code they use.

    1. Re:white savior by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      But that's HARD. We'd actually have to work. It's way easier to spy on the idiots using insecure crap, that report even writes itself with the macros we have.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  21. 2nd amendment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know the idea is 2nd amendment level of shitty when you have someone bringing that NRA cow-boy rethorics to the party

  22. Re:Hypocrites by Ultra64 · · Score: 1

    >No doubt you'll mod my post down to -1

    As it should be, because you are utterly retarded.

    More than one person visits Slashdot. It is possible for different people to have different opinions.

  23. Best way to "hack back": by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Detonate an EMP on their servers. A nuclear EMP. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    Let's see Skynet resist THAT "hack back".

  24. Why not do a yearly internet 'purge' too by random_poster · · Score: 1

    Might as well. I mean lately we are collectively pulling the tiger by the tail with our societal decisions lately.

    1. Re:Why not do a yearly internet 'purge' too by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      How about we purge congress and senate on an annual base? Everyone who proposed an unenforceable or otherwise completely idiotic law gets pruned.

      How long do you think we have 'til there are no candidates left to fill the ranks?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re: Why not do a yearly internet 'purge' too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dunno, this country seems to have an endless pool of idiots... I mean potential candidates..

    3. Re: Why not do a yearly internet 'purge' too by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Then let's filter them through Congress. Might even make a show out of it. "American Idiot" would be a cool name, along the lines of a similarly named show.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Why not do a yearly internet 'purge' too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A yearly purge would just make them more ignorant than they already are. I propose that they be required to take tests on any bill that they vote on. In order to vote on a bill they need to pass a comprehension test to prove that they actually read it. Voters get a report card on their senators, and If they pass shitty bills that they understood or cant pass comprehension tests then voters have a valid reason to purge them. Side affect of this should be shorter bills that are easier to comprehend.

  25. As an Aussie I have to say it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    To quote the late a great Bon Scott we are on the highway to hell... if they pass this law

  26. The dial up decade by AHuxley · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Most interesting people would just hop to a nice fast, open staging server.
    From that they would use the network speed to move a lot of plain text unencrypted US data.
    Clean up the logs, drop some really fake code litter, move the data around a few more servers and finally move the data to a safe location.
    What is the USA going to see? The ip range of that first staging server...
    A totally unrelated set of networks and computers will feel the full force of US cyber "fight back"?
    That nation will tell the tech media of the deep penetration efforts by the USA on some vital/special/ISP/commercial server and network.
    Most governments also use their other nations domestic ISP networks ip ranges to look around the "internet" and do spy things.
    Could be a home user on a modem downloading plain text data from a wide open US server again, or it could be the last hop by some other very distant gov/group.
    Does the US want to "fight back" on some ISP in an unrelated nation? To find the next hop to another ISP and nation?
    Keep on hacking back and hope the next hack is the real person trying to get the data in front of their own home computer?
    The "fight back" won't find the destination, it will just damage some ISP/network/university/brand used in some random nation. Or some easy network in some nation that got hacked for its speed and unexpected ip ranges.
    Its not the 1980's with one user, a dial up modem and their home computer entering advanced US networks directly. Even in the 1980's most smart people used a few different educational and private sector networks around the world before their final US network of interest.
    A lot of work for brands, companies, educational, medical networks and ISP will have to clean up after the USA attempts another "fight back" as they saw the ip, the network connection and attempted to "stop the attack" with some clicking around on some contractor's GUI.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:The dial up decade by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      tl;dr version:

      Hack company A with a notoriously bad security rep (i.e. with poor to nonexistent logging)
      Use company A to hack company B. Make sure you leave enough material to tell them who did it.
      Enjoy the show.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  27. This is why people laugh at politicians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They do not seem to understand technology... or real life, is obvious that this will backfire to anyone, it's like playing russian roulette.... wait, now i think i do understand the joke.

    1. Re:This is why people laugh at politicians by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      The tube or pipe connecting the US brand been hacked is a direct to pipe some person in their own home.
      The telephone exchange has connected the computer's modem for a set time 2017.
      Other modems don't share that phone number so it must be that user's modem and home computer.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  28. VERY bad idea by JustNiz · · Score: 1

    The problem with allowing corps to hack back is that you've only got their word that someone hacked them first. What constitutes a hack attempt and what constitutes an appropriate response comes entirely down to individual interpretation.
    I can imagine many if not most companies would use that ruling tactically rather than honestly.

    1. Re:VERY bad idea by dbIII · · Score: 2

      The problem with allowing corps to hack back is that you've only got their word that someone hacked them first.

      True - a good example is the Australian Census "hack" that turned out to be allocating less resources than Slashdot has to a site that was expecting around five million hits around 7pm on a Tuesday night when everyone had been told to log in.
      There were loud screams of "hack" to try to pretend that it hadn't been mismanaged.

    2. Re:VERY bad idea by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      They did a port scan. Fire up the LOIC!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:VERY bad idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not up to individual interpretation. It's up to the courts. The text of the proposed bill specifies what a hack attempt is and what a legal retaliation is.

      It's a bit of legalese, but the TL;DR is: You can access the attacker's computer for the purpose of identifying them to law enforcement, disrupting an ongoing attack on your systems, or monitoring the attacker to assist in developing countermeasures. You cannot destroy information on someone else's computer, cause physical or financial injury to another person, create a threat to public health and safety, or access intermediary computers beyond what is necessary to locate the source of the attack. You also have to notify the FBI before you do any of this.

      In other words, if you try to claim that RivalCorp attacked you, and you decide to steal all their data and crash their servers as "retaliation," then this bill offers zero protection. You're going to be facing criminal charges. And it'll be easy for RivalCorp to find out who hacked them, because you told the FBI you were doing it. (If you didn't tell them, then you're still looking at criminal charges, it just makes you slightly harder to catch.)

      If you want to hack your rivals and ruin their business, stick to doing it the illegal way. That way you don't leave a paper trail.

  29. That's what's cool about this whole Trump thing by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Predictability was thrown out the window. Everything is up for grabs now. What the hell, run with it!

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  30. FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WE SALUTE YOU!

    FIRE!

  31. Re:Open season on the NSA and other government org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does the NSA slurping up all our data count as "hacking"? They're not breaking in through exploits, but if we were doing it they'd still accuse of us being hackers so....

    Windows is spyware. Which is a form of malware...

    Really this seems like an excuse to throw anarchy in every direction. Which we should be doing anyway, frankly.

  32. Out of date thinking by whoever57 · · Score: 2

    This comes from the old mindset that a good defence is a good offence. That may be true in traditional warfare, but not in "the cyber" [ironic quotes].

    A good defence is a good defence. That's the end of it. But these out of date fossils don't or won't learn that.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    1. Re:Out of date thinking by coofercat · · Score: 1

      ...not least because the story is a dupe.

      As I said on the other version of it - hacking is hard. I know the basics, and yet for me to hack a vulverable webcam would probably take me days of dedicated work. I could of course buy suitable tools to do it automatically, or I could enlist the help of a company to do it for me.

      The problem with that is of course that only the rich will be doing the 'hacking back'. You and I simply won't have the resources, and so we're at the mercy of the big corps who 'have reasonable suspicion' of us hacking them. How on earth diplomatic missions expect to do any useful work when various companies are hacking allies, enemies and all in between at their whim remains to be seen.

  33. Re:The dead giveaway is the AC response by fustakrakich · · Score: 0

    Calling someone out when they are being stupid is helpful to them.

    People call me out all the time
    I tell them to fuck off
    Next you know, I'm President of the United States
    I mean. how cool is that?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  34. Re:The dead giveaway is the AC response by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    And really, did we have these kinds of typos before there was an internet?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  35. You went full retard by dbIII · · Score: 2

    It's an IP address.
    It's not necessarily the compromised system anymore, or maybe never was because the IP address in nearly every case is a gateway and not the actual compromised system.
    You've build a vast pile of irrelevant words on your faulty premise.

  36. Not so sure by __aayzxm8190 · · Score: 0

    I don't know about THIS. Hacking is a negative sum game and this will LEAD to more hacking. Actually I manage 80,000 workstations and I developed a PYTHON program to scrape my Slashdot history. The POLICE broadcast SOUNDS.

  37. It's simple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a dating website will get hacked, or a chain of stores will be hacked, nobody panics, because it’s all ‘part of the plan’. But when I say that one little old DNC will be hacked, well then everyone loses their minds!

  38. Watching too much television. by drolli · · Score: 1

    In real life, hacking back does work in minutes or hours, but if it works at all days, weeks, months or years. And that assumes that it works at all, that you hit the right system and that the system is in possession of the institution you actually want to hit (and not just a hacked system).

  39. ACDC? by tquasar · · Score: 1

    I prefer AC/DShe. http://www.acdshe.com/

  40. So china can hack back at the USA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and the USA will drop the ridiculous claim it's an act of war,right?

  41. Letters of Marque by imidan · · Score: 2

    I feel like what they're getting at is some version of the Letter of Marque, which in old sailing days allowed a privateer vessel to go around attacking enemy ships with the blessing of the government. With some modern version, the government could authorize certain security firms to go after hackers, and businesses could contract with these firms to protect them from attack and/or retaliate against attackers. I can't see most businesses, even large corporations, setting up their own retaliation corps--the expertise is rare, expensive, and would probably go mostly unused.

    I'm not saying that's a good idea, but it's certainly far more realistic than giving, say, Colgate-Palmolive carte blanche to hack anyone who they thought hacked them first. That just seems like it would lead to chaos. At least with Letters of Marque, the chaos would be contained to some smaller group of security-related companies that maybe would have to go through some certification to get that status. That way leads to digital Blackwater, though, and is that really that much better?

    1. Re:Letters of Marque by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      What makes you think that certain companies don't already have that? This would just legalize using it domestic.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Letters of Marque by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, there's no reason to believe there isn't already digital Blackwater. Or whatever they're calling themselves these days. I think it was Xe for a while, but then they changed it again.

  42. Re:Hypocrites by MrMr · · Score: 1

    You are aware that '-1 I disagree' is not a moderation option?

  43. Weaponisation of the Internet by Alain+Williams · · Score: 0

    If an organisation is going to want to 'Hack Back' at somewhere that (they believe) has attacked them then they are going to need tools to do so. The result will be an arms race of 'Hacking' tools as companies rush to fill a gap in the market - good news for the likes of Symantec I suppose, a new profit centre. So: will these tools only ever be used 'legitimately' ?

    How is this different from having more guns on the street, the result of which is that more people get killed ? (Sorry NRA supporters, but there is a reason that the USA is near the top of the List of countries by firearm-related deaths)

    Would Microsoft release a new suite 'Microsoft Hack', what operating system(s) would it seek to subvert ?

    So will unfettered use of nmap now be unarguably legal ?

    1. Re:Weaponisation of the Internet by moeinvt · · Score: 1

      "more guns on the street, the result of which is that more people get killed"

      Your link does not demonstrate "more people get killed" because it ignores every other cause of death. People get killed by bludgeoning, strangling, stabbing, poisoning, vehicular homicide, etc. Where's the data showing a causal relationship between firearms ownership and the overall homicide rate? i.e. "more people get[ting] killed"?

      Roughly 2/3 of those deaths in the USA are suicides. If firearms ownership results in more deaths, why is the USA #48 in a list of countries by suicide rate?

      Obviously more firearms means more suicides and homicides by people using firearms, but people find ways to commit murder and suicide with or without them. There is no causal relationship.

  44. Two frikkin things... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Numbah wun, its FRIKKIN WHOM YA PHILISTINE!

    Numbah too, Black ICE is sooooo comin! Can't wait to see Facebook brick half their users computers due to a config error and go down in the unholy flames of litigation!

  45. I don't think the congressman understands by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think the congressman understands the gravity of the situation and he should know better I think.

    If a warring faction like USA with someone like CIA/NSA/alphabet-soup-agency targets me, they will be deemed a treat equal to that of an enemy combatant. I don't think this US congressman really want to entertain the kind of antagonism inherent in all of this.

    So.. I am thinking that the congressman is maybe up to something.

    1. Re:I don't think the congressman understands by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      "Idiot politician runs his mouth about internet" would be the fitting headline.

      Then again, you could recycle that headline at least on a weekly base.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:I don't think the congressman understands by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Don't we get enough dupes already?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:I don't think the congressman understands by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      So.. I am thinking that the congressman is maybe up to something.

      Many commentators are saying the congressman clearly does not understand what he's proposing. The truth will actually be that the congressman doesn't care in the slightest about what he's proposing. He'll just be doing what he's being paid to do. Find the money source and you find the reason.

    4. Re:I don't think the congressman understands by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      The difference would be that the headline instead of the story is the same.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  46. Sounds great except by DrXym · · Score: 2

    Hackers generally attack through innocent 3rd parties, either compromised machines, bots or whatever. So what exactly do you hack back against? And what if there is collateral damage?

    1. Re:Sounds great except by OtisSnerd · · Score: 1

      I run a self hosted website that is constantly being probed by cable modems, and compromised home and business hosts behind those modems. Some of the compromised PCs are not necessarily the owner's fault either, plus they have no clue to how to secure an ISP provided POS cable modem / router. Allowing these folks to be 'hacked back' will lead to endless grief for the wrong people. I believe that vastly more wrongly suspected 'hackers' will be attacked that the real culprits. Ans also what happens when the recipient of the reverse hacking is a hospital or medical facility, and someone is harmed? That's a recipe for endless lawsuits.

  47. This will be fun for hackers. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

    1.Hack your target covertly.
    2. Use your target to send a very non-covert attack against any major organisation with a reputation for active defense
    3. Sit back and watch the retaliation.

  48. Dear Mr. Graves by Opportunist · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It is illegal for me to pretend I am a lawyer and act as if I knew something about legal processes. For some odd reason it's still legal for you to pretend to know something about computers or that newfangled thing called "the internets" or something like this, despite your absolute blatant display of total ignorance.

    On behalf of the people who know a thing or two about it: Please, do the world, and your reputation, a favor and shut the fuck up. Please don't talk about things you have about as much knowledge of as the average other pig has about nuclear physics.

    And, even more important, don't make laws about things without knowing jack shit about them. You have the option to have advisers. Get one that has a clue.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  49. preemptive of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if they are good red white and blue merkin coprs and the nsa won't do it for them . Not at all if they aint murican.

  50. Legal retaliation, you say? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

    So, given a few articles ago, I wonder if Putin could claim ACDC legitimized retaliation against the CIA.

  51. Re:Hypocrites by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    So, I get it you're for legalizing the actions of those that hacked the IoT devices to brick them? Or what is your point? Because that's essentially what this proposal from this Congressman means. Anyone who feels "hacked" (whatever that may mean, anyway) gets the license to kill whatever he deems "hacked" him.

    I always wanted to have the right to kick off the internet who bothers me. Go ahead. Make my day.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  52. It gets worse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This bill would give rise to ACDaaS, ("Active Cyber Defense as a Service"), AKA private enterprise providing legalized hacking services to hack back on your behalf.

    And if your business doesn't have the skills needed to identify the attacker, the ACDaaS contractor could identify the attacker for you as well, saving you from having to worry about such details.

    Thus, the same company could hack a potential customer, contract with them to identify and stop the hacker, report having wiped the customer's data from the "attackers" machines, and collect their payment. Nothing fixed, no lessons learned, money well earned.

    Hell, if the bill passes, this is the exact kind of business I'll start, if only out of spite for the companies that would consider hacking back an appropriate response to a breach.

  53. And politicians wonder, by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

    why things in the Middle East are so fucked up. American leaders' current obsession with instantaneous retribution at almost any cost, is an object lesson in how that kind of insanity comes into being.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  54. What if it kinda is? by Tatarize · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There's some cases when you could invoke something like BrickerBot against a DDoS attack coming from a bunch of webcams and other unsecured devices. Would I be allowed to attack back against these devices and brick some random guy's webcam or router simple because it's unsecured and being used in the attack?

    I mean that's the right target right? I should be allowed to use the same exploit used to compromise that system in mass and destroy vast number of webcams or routers or whatever devices are attacking me right?

    --

    It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
    1. Re:What if it kinda is? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      I mean that's the right target right? I should be allowed to use the same exploit used to compromise that system in mass and destroy vast number of webcams or routers or whatever devices are attacking me right?

      They quite literally do not know what they're doing. Should be interesting if nothing else.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    2. Re:What if it kinda is? by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      Would I be allowed to attack back against these devices and brick some random guy's webcam or router simple because it's unsecured and being used in the attack?

      I don't see why not. Badly secured devices are simply defective. Better let them stop working entirely so people take them back to the store en masse. That way companies making these crappy devices will be forced to finally take security more seriously or go bust from warranty claims. Isn't that how it should be?

    3. Re:What if it kinda is? by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      There's some cases when you could invoke something like BrickerBot against a DDoS attack coming from a bunch of webcams and other unsecured devices. Would I be allowed to attack back against these devices and brick some random guy's webcam or router simple because it's unsecured and being used in the attack?

      I mean that's the right target right? I should be allowed to use the same exploit used to compromise that system in mass and destroy vast number of webcams or routers or whatever devices are attacking me right?

      Just because I'm pretty hard up about protecting the internet itself, and free speech, and my overall belief that IoT is a big security shitfuck, I'd say probably yes. Also in the case of desktop/laptop systems, I'd be in favor of e.g. Microsoft being allowed to break in and kill whatever malware they are running. Right now they don't because they say they can't due to legal issues.

      (FWIW I'm opposed to hacktivism as well because it's effectively a form of censorship; a gag order from court of public opinion, if you will, and it overall devalues the internet. When I see hacktivists bringing down sites like walmart just because they feel like they have some kind of moral high ground, when they clearly don't, it pretty well pisses me off. I'm also a network engineer so I'm instinctively OCD about uptime, even when problems don't involve me.)

  55. What could possibly go wrong? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is the digital equivalent of the "stand your ground" laws that let gun-happy rednecks mow down innocent black people and get away with it.

  56. Russia? by Tatarize · · Score: 1

    What if my attacker is Russia? Can I hack Russia back and with what kind of force? Can I break their government systems, destroy their computer, launch a stuxnet like virus upon them and destroy the computer systems of the Kremlin? Or would such things maybe be acts of war and a bit beyond the pale?

    --

    It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
    1. Re:Russia? by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      Only one way to find out. Let us know how it went.

    2. Re:Russia? by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Yes. When you are attacked by Russia, feel free to launch a stuxnet-like attack and destroy the computer systems of the Kremlin. In fact, you don't even have to wait. Go ahead and do it now. We'll wait.

    3. Re:Russia? by Tatarize · · Score: 1

      One would assume you could do so for a few million dollars. The zero days would cost a bit, and it would be like 100,000 man hours. But well within the reach of a Fortune 500 business.

      --

      It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
    4. Re:Russia? by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      What if my attacker is Russia? Can I hack Russia back and with what kind of force? Can I break their government systems, destroy their computer, launch a stuxnet like virus upon them and destroy the computer systems of the Kremlin? Or would such things maybe be acts of war and a bit beyond the pale?

      You already can do that if you'd like, and there would be no legal repercussions. Though I wouldn't be surprised if ol' Putin sends a KGB agent to...oh say...poison your coffee, or maybe stab you with a ricin umbrella...if he found out who you were.

      I remember just after 9/11, hacktivists attacked Taliban infrastructure, and the US government didn't do anything other than just ask them to stop, and the only reason they asked for them to stop was so that they could extract intelligence and do some infiltration work of their own, which they can't do if their servers are down.

  57. Define Hack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh look this person sent a packet to CIA.GOV its a hack (forget it was just a normal browser request) We can now legally without warrant attack everything on this computer, and lets get the rest of his subnet just to be safe as well.

  58. Re:The dead giveaway is the AC response by Megol · · Score: 1

    Hey super-idiot: you started the fucking name-calling and illogical extrapolations. Your post is stupid and by extension you are stupid, your reasoning is of the quality of a snail and your father smelt of elderberries.

    (Intentionally childish post so that you may understand)

  59. Re:Hypocrites by Megol · · Score: 1

    Sadly there's no "-1 poster is a complete idiot" either. However I reason that a complete idiot shouldn't be able to post at all and so the idiotic post is a trolling attempt.

    I'd like to see a "-1/2 badly supported argument" option too, could perhaps encourage people to actually put some effort into their posts.

    Oh well I get to that when I create my own website with blackjack and hookers...

  60. Only a good guy with a gun... by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

    ...can stop a bad guy with a gun, so that must also be true on the internet. After all, it's just a series of trucks in tubes, and we need guns to stop the truck bombs and go after the tube pirates in their caves in Russia. Or something like that.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re: Only a good guy with a gun... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but that's like comparing apples to oranges. It is more like being on your property and shooting back someone else's property in response. With the slight difference that all properties have direct connections between them so you can shoot a guy in his own property on the other side of the planet, Then the bullets don't always go straight - I might shoot at your property but the bullet will go through a third place before hitting you. Then you have these bullets that you could just plant in your garden to look like they've come from your neighbor ... now you can hit him back with full force.

  61. why this is easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why this is easy..Carol Sue fucks billy bob, BOB's 1st cousin whom is Alice's husband

  62. Congress does not understand, yet again. by Eosi · · Score: 2

    Congress loves to pass laws regarding "cyber security" without understanding a thing about it. Forget that most attacks are through compromised devices anymore, or via cloud hosts. Most companies that get "hacked" are that way due to poor security in the first place. To think they would be smart enough or robust enough to turn around and hack the people who hacked them, is pure stupidity. Recall that FISMA was suppose to stop the government PC's and networks from being hacked, but it did not, nor did it stop stolen devices from being compromised. SIPR and NIPR were suppose to be separate, but in many cases they run on the same network gear. Congress should get a real CISO in there, to help teach them what security is, before they try anymore laws regarding it.

  63. Ok, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you hack the party responsible for using the malware, or the one responsible creating it if that is known to you? In the case of "WannaCry", well you see where I am going with this...

  64. Good luck by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 2

    You can't defend something you don't own. There was a time in which the Internet was treated much like a highway driven by cars leased from our ISP's and the desktop like our homes, but Google changed that, Micro$oft is making it worse, and the FCC is bringing their own tyranny into the mix. No one in the U.S. has to hack you or even get a warrant, they can just legally purchase your browsing information. There are too many laws and ways of thinking that would have to be changed as a result of this for those in power that need them for their Muslim witch hunt excuse for the digital fingerprinting of everyone or companies that need the capitalistic advantage for this to happen. I honestly can't remember the last time a bill that made sense was passed that had no twisted ulterior motive in the end. Would we have an "NRA" for computer self defense? This would never happen in the "UKGB."

  65. Vigilantism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What could possibly go wrong..?

  66. U.S. becomes the new NSA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is what is going on:

    1. Trick stupid population that the Russians and Chinese are attacking
    2. Let every citizen, business, and corporation, legally attack Russian and Chinese Internet targets
    3. Effectively turn every dumb citizen into a U.S. cyber-warrior and let them fight as they wish, no rules, no laws, no repercussions.

    What a shit country you are turning into.

  67. Lets all Put on our Special Helmets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How could this ever go wrong? There are too many organizations that lack anyone who could for certain say who was attacking them. Spoofed IPs, infested boxes, etc. all open the door for the WRONG person/people to be attacked back.

    Keep your software/systems/firewalls secure and keep your trigger happy monkeys on your own LAN thanks.

  68. Re:Open season on the NSA and other government org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, according to the Democrats and the mainsteam media John Podesta sending his password to the first person who asked in a phishing email equals "Russia hacked the election." Most organizations would consider someone slurping unencrypted traffic off their local network as "hacking." So I guess it follows that the NSA is hacking the world.

    Someone needs to ask Kevin Mitnick to whistle tones into a phone handset and launch a nuclear attack on Fort Meade.

  69. Bypassing the need for warrants by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 1

    Aside from all the other issues people have already mentioned with this bill, this seems like a great way for the government to do an end-run around those pesky warrant requirements. It's such a chore for law enforcement to go to a judge and have to offer a valid reason for breaking into somebody's property to collect evidence. With this bill, you simply let the victims gather the evidence, completely unbound by law, and have them turn over any findings - whether related to the hacking or not.

    I'm sure this loophole wouldn't be used unscrupulously by any three-letter agencies, no sir.

  70. There already is a way to "hack back" in real time by Solandri · · Score: 2

    It's called a honeypot. Put a server on your system with valuable-looking but fake data. If a hacker goes for it, you are (1) wasting his time, (2) corrupting the trustworthiness of all the data he's collected, and (3) helping expose him via monitoring tools you've placed on the honeypot.

  71. Simple Motivation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In 4 words: More Money For Lawyers!!!

  72. Re: The dead giveaway is the AC response by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Okay. You are stupid. That was helpful, right? Probably not. Because now you are too stupid to realize how stupid you are. Next time, just state your case without calling others stupid, dumbass.

  73. Oh YES! Brilliant. by evolutionary · · Score: 1

    Like escalation always works right? I can just see the mini-wars getting started the cyber "gods" need to contain the skermishes. One thing about war that is universally true: it's the bystanders who are the first and generally biggest casualties.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  74. While it's fun to imagine all-out cyberwarfare... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...the bill at least seems to be scoped to only hacks for the purpose of identifying the source of a hack or gathering information on the attacker. You're not allowed to go beyond the scope of your investigate, to destroy files, cause physical or financial harm, impair the functioning of the attacker's computer, or create a backdoor. And you have to notify the FBI before doing so, so if you do accidental (or "accidental") damage to someone else's computer in the process, it won't take a cyber-genius to figure out who's responsible.

    IMO, this bill is more on the "useless" than the "dangerous" side. If you do everything right, maybe you help track down a hacker, but it still won't repair the damage they did. If you do anything wrong, you face fines and jail time, and perhaps screw up a real investigation by mucking up the chain of custody. I don't think any company would take that risk.

  75. Not a fucking one of them. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ever sat at any console at any NOC were so fucking doomed.

  76. Poster Child for a Dumb Ass by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    Hay Tom Graves, R-Ga., what if my business thinks you're an enemy of the state? How about we consider the ramifications of ignoring the DOJ? Better yet, how's your Russian? Sounds like you're a politician in the wrong country?

  77. No. God No. by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    This is vigilantism, which outside of 90s arcade beat'em ups is not a good thing. The rule of law says force should only be used by the government and then is very, very, very tightly controlled and regulated. Notice I said 'force' not violence. There's a difference. The government only uses violence as an act of war. A cop uses just enough force to subdue; more is excessive and gets the cop fired and possibly prosecuted (yeah, I know the practical reality isn't always the same but we're talking principles and ideas here).

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  78. The rise of the corporate cyber mercenary by dasgoober · · Score: 2

    Laying waste to rival corps' data, exposing their internal emails and phone conferences.
    Wasn't there an RPG like this?

  79. Micosoft's been hacking me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft's been hacking me for years. Now I can finally hack them back without any legal ramifications.

  80. Dangerously stupid precedent by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    If anyone for a single moment thinks this wouldn't be abused to the extreme and leveraged for corporate espionage and corporate cyberwarfare, then you're extremely naive. Companies would be hacking their competitors 24/7, claiming they're 'counter-attacking because they detected being hacked', and totally fabricate the evidence of said hacking. It would turn the Internet into something out of a cyberpunk novel, but in the worst sort of way. You think the Internet is dangerous NOW? Just wait until the MPAA and RIAA have the legal right to literally attack the IP address of anyone, anywhere, with basically no accountability and no consequences. On that note you'd probably have them hacking random people's computers, planting copyrighted material (movies, etc) then having the FBI kick their door in and confiscate their computing equipment, arrest them, jail them, and then they'd also get sued for everything they're worth; what a great money-making scheme that would be, right? /s

    Screw that. Another technologically fucktarded politician with another horribly bad idea. Not enough 'nope!' in the entire Universe for that.

  81. Hack *who*? by whitroth · · Score: 1

    First, it assumes that most companies have *real* hackers on staff, or on call, and not script kiddies and other wannabees, who, say, don't know what a munged address is.

    Second, yeah, about that, so if Russia's intel agencies decide to hack you, or Saudi Arabia's, or, for that matter, the NSA does it, you're really going to hack back? I can hear the real agencies saying, "gee, this kiddie wants to play out of their league...."

    Guy's A. Idiot.

  82. Re:Hypocrites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is, it's called Overrated.

  83. Robocaller abuse by Yoik · · Score: 1

    Back in analog times, the equivalent of modern robocallers was call centers (typically staffed by young women) who would call you to pitch something.

    There was a game that people who had some spare time would play to abuse them in the hope of getting on "do not call" lists that got documented on USENET. Wasting their time cost the company who paid them money so the basic scoring was based on how long you could keep them on the phone, or even better their supervisors who were paid more.

    Cruel misogynistic players sought to get emotional reactions from the girls who called, with tears as their objective. Horney players attempted to get dates, or if their tastes ran that way, to date the supervisor. Several people posted suggested rules for competitive comparison, and stories of their successes on telecom news groups.

    It might be a good idea to create a Reddit group since it isn't obvious how to get a reaction from the machines. Perhaps there is an equivalent to the 2600hz Captain Crunch whistle.

  84. NSA and GCHQ have it coming to them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So hacking the NSA will be fair game !

  85. When I own your teams computers.... by WolfgangVL · · Score: 1

    And use your teams systems to attack my teams systems, and my team turns around and owns your whole team, I win. Or maybe it's your team and their team? I guess everyone else wins.

    I better hurry up and finish my distopia future novel while I can still publish under fiction.

    --
    You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
  86. Whoever you think is hacking you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think that the bank is hacking me.

    And the RIAA, and MPAA.

    And pretty sure that Sony is in on it too.

  87. Against the Evil Pirates ! by DrYak · · Score: 1

    And soon Sony will be able to pull another Root-kit scandal, but this time it will be considered as legitimate defense against the evil pirates trying to hack them (and their DRM).
    Too bad if a few (= tons of) users got their machines nuked by the rootkit too, even if they never attempted to circumvent DRM.
    It's still allowed "hack-back"!

    Nuke all the machines.
    Kill them all and let God sort them out.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  88. Microsoft will lobby strongly against this... by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

    ...otherwise we'll finally get "The Year Of Linux (and BSD) On The Desktop"... because that'll be all that's left.

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
    I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
  89. What if they counter-hack an innocent target? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With all of these DDoS attacks being considered "hacking", how many innocent zombies would be considered valid targets?
    If someone innocent is wrongfully counter-hacked, should they be allowed to fuck up the system of the self-proclaimed sheriff by invoking the same statute of "self-defense".
    What if my ISP is keeping track of data I don't want them to?
    Am I allowed to hack their system and wipe it?
    I can't have my business secrets, or hints thereof, being stored on their servers (they don't have proper vetting).

  90. Overstep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This could give the FBI etc the right to hack anyone in the us.

  91. Hack Back Tools by AceCaseOR · · Score: 1

    We can call these Hack-Back Utilities "Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics" or "ICE" for short.

    --
    Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
  92. Stupid name by fox171171 · · Score: 1

    "For those about to hack, we salute you."

  93. What about when the hacker is the FBI? by Rujiel · · Score: 1

    Intelligence agencies now have the right to hack you if you use Tor, a VPN, or have been infected with malware. Would any of us then be justified to hack the FBI?