At 07:34 AM 7/31/02, you wrote:


>On Tue, 30 Jul 2002 15:04:36 -0400 (EDT)
>Russell McOrmond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>|  Ethics is a rather personal thing.  You'll want to define
>|  membership criteria for a SIG, and totally avoid the phrase
>|  'ethics'.
>
>
>On Tue, 30 Jul 2002, Wm. G. McGrath wrote:
>
> > Take for example security. Common designations for hackers are black
> > hat, grey hat, white hat.... To my way of thinking it is
> > unacceptable for an IT professional to break into anyone else's
> > computer for any reason whatsoever. Getting caught doing so,
> > advocating, instructing or supporting those who do so could be
> > regarded as 'conduct unbecoming a professional'....
>
>
>   You have proven my point - thanks ;-)
>
>   You have expressed something that you admit was "to my way of thinking"
>which is not something that is agreed upon by everyone.
>
>   I have personally 'hacked' into my own customers networks at times to
>demonstrate to them that they have security problems.  I didn't consider
>it 'hacking', but other would.
>
>    In one case it was trivial as they had no firewall yet, and I printed
>something out on their printer from remote to say "by the way, you need a
>firewall".
>
>
>   In your mind, was I unethical?  If you think I am unethical, does that
>not prove my point that "ethics" is a very subjective thing?  If you think
>I am not unethical, where do you draw the line between what I did and what
>you *personally/subjectively* consider to be 'hacking'?

We are arguing semantics here. I used the term Ethics because that is what 
other professional organizations use. Basically the SIG will have to set 
out a standard for acceptable behaviour.

Do I consider testing clients security unacceptable? No, not in the 
examples listed.

Do I consider hacking into a rival companies systems to steal secrets 
unacceptable? Yes, I do.

What these standards of acceptable behaviour consist of is a detail that 
should be discussed at a later time.
-- 
Mark Lane
Hard Data Ltd.
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Telephone: 01-780-456-9771
FAX: 01-780-456-9772

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Edmonton, AB, Canada
T5X 1Y3

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