Yeah, how will that work exactly? This is farcical on the face of it. The European Council wants to make it illegal to create “hacking” tools. So, if you build a better mouse trap you must be an exterminator? Is that how this works? This has not been clearly thought out.
From The Register:
Under the Act a person is guilty of an offence if he “makes, adapts, supplies or offers to supply any article intending it to be used to commit, or to assist in the commission of, [a hacking offence].” The word “article” is defined in the Act to include “any program or data held in electronic form”.
Illegal interception of computer data will also become a criminal offence under the Council’s plans, the statement said.
I’m sure they had all the best intentions when they started down this path but, these ministers are obviously receiving bad advice from halfwits. For example “any article intending it to be used to commit” is problematic when you consider the legal systems in many countries. If a computer is seized and it has a copy of Red Button on it they might have been thinking about committing a crime with it? Riiight.
General cases of computer system attacks should result in offenders facing a maximum jail sentence of at least two years, and punishment for offences committed against a “significant number” of systems should be a maximum of at least three years jail time, the Council said.
There is far too much room for error. There is no mention of legitimate use for testing. Do they naively think that the criminal fringe will say “OK, you got us. We give up” and that will be the end of it?
Um, in a word, no.
(Image used under CC from Rubin 110)