Ethical hacking: How far it is ethical and safe?

http://www.cybervictims.edu.tf/

For some days, I was reading a lot on hacking and especially how hacking can be used for good, how far ethical hacking can be treated as a ‘noble job’ and how the law may treat ‘ethical hacking’. As a researcher of law, I found a noteworthy point: maximum domestic laws do not term the offence as “hacking”. It is more the “unauthorized access and modification of the data there in” which is regulated by laws rather than  the act of ‘hacking’ which in short , means “writing the code in an unauthorized way”. While searching the internet, I found Wikipedia refers the word “hack” as “clever or quick fix of computer problem”. ( Hack (technology). (2010, April 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:56, April 21, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hack_(technology)&oldid=357121808 ) .When seeing from this perspective, I feel the laws regulate a more broader arena which include several illegal activities like unauthorized access  to the computer, destroying and perhaps rebuilding the data without permission , blocking the original owner from accessing his personal data and then least but not the last, putting the original victim, i.e. the owner of the informations /data in mental trauma . Now, ‘hacking’ has always been associated with the big bad world and laws and law makers have treated it nothing but as another crime. But how about hacking the ‘hacked content’ and reverse treatment for the hacker and bringing back the computer/data/site to its original owner? Well, this is what the ‘ethical hacker’ does…… the super-man bringing back the rescued child to the over anxious parents. But could this be treated as ‘hacking for good cause’ and thereby exempted from the legal punch? Is it really ‘ethical’? Over all, is it safe to engage an ethical hacker in case one suffers 'hacking'?

Several computer-gurus have voted ethical hacking as really ethical. Given the fact that hacking in this situation is done to stop an iniquitous work; it is but natural to call it 'ethical'........ the motive remains (perhaps) good and not bad and this is the sole justification for terming this particular hacking activity as 'ethical hacking'. But considering from legal perspectives, can this ethical hacking be quoted as legal? Does it really help the common hack-victim to avoid bigger problems? Can the ethical hacker escape legal clutches under the cloak of ‘ethics’?

    Well, I really believe the answer to all these questions is  a big NO. When the victim contacts the ethical hacker to save him, the whole operation is carried out basically on ‘trust’. Indeed there are many ethical hackers, and I got to know many such ethical hackers personally, who really keep up with the ethics. They do use this tricky technology to help and not to destroy. But imagine a situation when the same ‘ethical hacker’ turns unethical to play a little mischief because the victim in distress could not ‘pay’ him as promised or refused to do some other activities in lieu of ‘hacking back’ the hacked contents. It would then turn up as again contacting another ethical hacker to prevent the earlier one from playing with the victim’s emotions and distresses, and then again and again and again……. Also, do remember, being ‘ethical’ sometimes may not help the hacker to get away from the legal proceedings unless the person in charge of such activities is acting as and under the law and justice machinery. Ethical hacker may balm the disaster faster and without any legal hassle; but in other way, he pulls the victim more towards legal hassle in case he is caught in relation to other hacking activities and the present victim is ‘exhibited’ as one of those who ‘encouraged’ the (ethical) hacker to play more tricks.

The safest mode would be to contact the police /cyber crime branch and ask them to be ‘savior’ and not ‘private practitioners’. Remember, hacking is recognized as a penal crime by domestic laws of all the countries who are in the ‘web’ of worldwide computer networks. Hence play safe.

Note from the author: The ideas expressed herein are solely for further legal research purposes. These are based on my personal perceptions and research findings and if anybody wants to avail legal help for cyber crimes such as hacking, for court procedures, he or she may contact me through my email.

A Note to readers: Please do not violate the copyright issues  of this blog .If you would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (April 2010), “Ethical hacking : How far it is ethical and safe?” April 2010, published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.com