What's Good For The Goose?
A couple of interesting debates intersect. On the one hand, the argument is made that it should be ok to attack machines that are responsible for propagating worms and viruses such as Nimda. There is much to be said for this - the worms affect the entire Internet, and - especially with attacks such as Nimda - it's not like the administrators, using the term loosely, of the offending systems have not been both warned of the existence of the worm, as well as an easily applied patch to cure the problem. On the other hand, the entertainment industry wants the right to hack into computers that are exchanging files. Governmental sources interviewed for this piece seem to believe that the 'defensive' hacking is wrong and inappropriate. We'll see if the same attitude applies to the 'offensive' hacking proposed by the representative from Disneyland.

Computers Under Attack Can Hack Back, Expert Says. A security researcher says people should be allowed to neutralize a computer that is unwittingly spreading destructive Internet worms like Nimda. By Reuters. [New York Times: Technology] 

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