Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Hacked

I had an unpleasant experience over the weekend trying to restore a computer that had been hacked. As far as I could tell a hacker from Holland had exploited a hole in my usually tight firewall and destroyed my mail server. I did consider investigating the matter further by exploring security logs, trying to trace IP address and the like - but what's the point?

The Computer Misuse Act 1990 has been somewhat battered by a recent decision made by District Judge Kenneth Grant. Although I may be able to use the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to deal with my case I am fairly sure that the legislation is so outdated that further holes will be punched in it to prevent further convictions. I have been a little surprised by the media coverage that this case has received, afterall it was a first instance decision of a Magistrates Court.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The trial you mention is different to what you have experienced. The so called hacker in your case has actually logged onto your machine without your permission and taken part in actively destoyed your machine. A denial of service (DOS) attack is quite different. If royal mail were to send me 1000 pieces of mail on a single day, I would not be able to perform any other daily activities other then reading my mail all day.
I don't quite think the Computer Misuse Act 1990 has been battered. Its remit needs to be increased.

Gavin said...

I will bow to your superior knowledge on this Lennie.

Anonymous said...

Being hacked and having computers that crashed are absolutely two of the worst things anyone could do to your computer. I can truly understand your situation.