with attempting to hack the Web site of the Mossad secret service. Presiding
judge Abraham Tennenbaum, who found that Avi Mizrahi had not attempted to
break into the site, but had merely been attempting to assess the security
level, even praised the defendant for "acting in the public good."
"In a way," wrote Tennenbaum, "Internet surfers who check the
vulnerabilities of Web sites are acting in the public good. If their
intentions are not malicious and they do not cause any damage, they should
even be praised," Tennenbaum wrote in his decision.
Mizrahi was charged in June 2003 with attempting to hack the Mossad site.
Mizrahi's attorney, Omri Kabiri, told Haaretz during the trial that his
client sent his resume to the Mossad via a site set up by the secret service
to recruit new employees.
Thereafter, Mizrahi used an automatic program to check the level of security
on the site to which he sent his resume. Mizrahi never revealed which
program he used nor whether he knew that it checked the Internet server on
which the site for known security holes.
Prosecutors summoned an expert witness who claimed that Mizrahi's attack on
the Web site showed the youth's expertise in Internet security. But the
judge dismissed this argument in his ruling. "The defendant is far from
being an expert on security or hacking, and doesn't even presume to be,"
Tennenbaum wrote.
© Copyright 2004 Haaretz. All rights reserved
--
Timothy Heald
Web Portfolio Manager
Overseas Security Advisory Council
U.S. Department of State
571.345.2319
The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S.
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