EU Ministers Seek To Ban Creation of Hacking Tools

alphadogg writes "Justice Ministers across Europe want to make the creation of 'hacking tools' a criminal offense, but critics have hit back at the plans, saying that they are unworkable. Ministers from all 27 countries of the European Union met on June 9 to discuss European Commission proposals for a directive on attacks against information systems. But in addition to approving the Commission's text, the ministers extended the draft to include 'the production and making available of tools for committing offenses.' This is problematic, as much legal and legitimate software could be put to criminal use by hackers. The draft mentions 'malicious software designed to create botnets or unrightfully obtained computer passwords,' but goes no further in attempting to clarify what 'tools' might be subject to criminal sanctions."

Uhh..

[betterunixthanunix]

How does one define "hacking tools?" Debuggers are pretty useful for hackers, as are things like netcat/socat, any of dozens of programming languages, and just about anything that lets you work at a low level. This does not even get into the legitimate uses of pen testing tools.

Oh, wait, let me guess: people will have to register with the government to use any of the above?

Re:text editors, compilers

[Anonymous Coward]

Penetration testing is a necessary application hardening process that depends on access to the SAME TYPE OF TOOLS that black hats use to break an application. Think of it like viral inoculation: You need some of the enemy code in order to build an effective defense.