From: "Rich Gauszka" 

all system administrators go directly to jail

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/30/garmany_anti-hacking_law/
Updates to Germany's computer crime laws banning so-called "hacking
tools" have been criticised as ill-considered and counterproductive.

The revamp to the German criminal code is designed to tighten definitions,
making denial of service attacks and attempts to sniff data on third-party
wireless networks, for example, clearly criminal. Attacks would be
punishable by a fine and up to 10 years imprisonment.


Previously, only attacks against companies and government organisations
were indictable offences. The regulations, passed last week, also make it
illegal for unauthorised users to bypass computer security protection to
access secure data.

Under these provision it becomes an offense to create, use or distribute
so-called "hacking tools". Critics point out that many of these
tools are used by system administrators and security consultants quite
legitimately to probe for vulnerabilities in corporate systems.

The distinctions between, for example, a password cracker and a password
recovery tool, or a utility designed to run denial of service attacks and
one designed to stress-test a network, are not properly covered in the
legislation, critics argue. Taken as read, the law might even even make use
of data recovery software to bypass file access permissions and gain access
to deleted data potentially illegal.

"Forbidding this software is about as helpful as forbidding the sale
and production of hammers because sometimes they also cause damage,"
Chaos Computer Club spokesman Andy Mller-Maguhn told Ars Technica.
"Safety research can [now] take place only in an unacceptable legal
gray area."

While making life more difficult for security consultants and sys admins,
the new laws will, paradoxically, make it easier for police to use hacking
tactics in gathering intelligence on suspects. The practice - declared
verboten by German courts earlier this year - could be reinstated under the
new laws, according to Mller-Maguhn.

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