Hacking Back in Self-Defense: Is It Legal? Should it Be? David Willson, JD, LLM CISSP, Security + Titan Info Security Group, LLC

Hacking Back in Self-Defense:

Is It Legal? Should it Be?

David Willson, JD, LLM

CISSP, Security +

Titan Info Security Group, LLC

LEGAL DISCLAIMER This presentation is made available for educational

purposes only as well as to give you general information and a general understanding of the law, not to provide specific legal advice. By viewing and participating in this presentation you understand that no attorney-client relationship is formed. This presentation and material herein should not be used as a substitute for actual legal advice from a licensed attorney in your state with whom you establish an attorney-client relationship. The ideas presented are only theories and should not be considered authorization or advice to take action and/or violate the law.


A LITTLE ABOUT MY BACKGROUND

Summer 2010: Retired from Army – JAG/Attorney for 20 years

Licensed Attorney in NY and CT, waiving into CO. Ten years trial work, both prosecution and defense Ten years providing advice and support in the areas

of satellite operations, information technology and security, and computer network operations

Legal advisor to IOTC, NASS, and then JFCC-NW at NSA

Just started Titan Info Security Group, LLC Frequent speaker at security conferences: RSA, CSI,

HTCIA, Int’t Cyber Crime Conf., Bsides, ISSA


BACKGROUND CONT. Published: “An Army View of Neutrality in Space: Legal Options for Space

Negation,” The Air Force Law Review, Vol. 50, 2001 “A Global Problem: Cyberspace Threats Demand an International

Approach,” Armed Forces Journal, July 2009; ISSA Journal, August 2009, lectured at

CSI (as keynote) and RSA. “When Does Electronic Espionage Become An Act of War?”

CyberPro Magazine, May 2010, ISSA Journal June 2010, lectured at International Cyber Crime Conference.

Lectured on: “Flying Through the Cloud, Investigations, Forensics

and Legal Issues in Cloud Computing," at CSI and HTCIA; "Ethical Use of Offensive Cyberspace," at RSA Titan Info Security Group, LLC

PROBLEM

Time

Resources

Revenue

Hackers and their Botnets plague the networks of many businesses around the world!

$78,000 stolen

$151,000 stolen

$241,000 stolen

$115,000 stolen


COREFLOOD BOTNET

Coreflood is a computer virus used to steal personal

and financial information from the machines it infects

and return it to the operator of the Botnet where it can

be used to steal funds, hijack identities and commit

other crimes. The FBI estimates that the Coreflood

Botnet enabled fraudulent transfers that cost

businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars before the

agency shut it down. (Govt Security News, John Mello, Jr.)


EFFECT OF CYBER CRIME (PONEMON STUDY 2010)


LOSSES (PONEMON STUDY 2010)


WHAT IS A BOT OR BOTNET?

Bot or web Robots: software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. The largest use of bots is in web spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyzes and files information from web servers at many times the speed of a human. Recently bots have been used for search advertising, such as Google Adsense.

Botnet: a collection of infected computers or bots that have been taken over by hackers and are used to perform malicious tasks or functions. A computer becomes a bot when it downloads a file (e.g., an email attachment, malware on a website) that has bot software embedded in it. A botnet is considered a botnet if it is taking action on the client itself via IRC channels without the hackers having to log in to the client's computer. The typical botnet consists of a bot server (usually an IRC server) and one or more botclients


HOW A BOT WORKS

• Botnets have different topologies or command and control (CnC) structures. Most, it appears, use a compromised server as and IRC server, or referred to as the IRC daemon (IRCd).

• Multiple bots will communicate with the IRCd via a “phone home” function.

Single point of failure : If the central CnC is blocked or otherwise disabled, the botnet is effectively neutered. This will become important as we get into the theory.


MORE DEFINITIONS


“Spam”

“Add-ons”

“Cookies”

IS HACK BACK SELF-DEFENSE?

Yes: Timothy Mullen, chief information officer of AnchorIS Inc, says people should be allowed to neutralize one that is unwittingly spreading destructive Internet worms like "Nimda."

No: C.H. "Chuck" Chassot of the Department of Defense's Command, Control, Communications & Intelligence office says "It is the DoD's policy not to take active measures against anybody because of the lack of certainty of getting the right person."

Yes: Jennifer Stisa Grannick, litigation director at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School says "This is a type of defense of property," she said. "There is a lot of sympathy for that (kind of action) from law enforcement and vendors because we do have such a big problem with viruses."


SCENARIO

Respon-se

Nothing

Block

Call LE

HackBack

Remove

Clean- up

Business X finds malware on their networks in the form of a Bot that is receiving instructions from a host server via IRC chat.


DETERRENTS TO HACK BACK

• The law makes it illegal to gain unauthorized access to a computer

Law

• Understand that highly probable hack back touches or effects innocent computer or networks

Ethics

• You may awaken the beast!!

Retribution


LAW


• Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)

• A law to prevent trespass against a computer or network

• Applies to any “protected computer”

• “Exceeds authorized access”

• “Computer”

• “Damage”

• “Loss”

LAW


“Whoever intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby XXX”

LAW


“Unauthorized Access to a Computer”

“Computer Trespass”

“Self-Defense”

MY THEORY

Embed Code in the “Phone

Home” function of a

Bot.

When the Bot connects to the IRC server the

Code disables it.


LEGAL??


• Did you have intent to access the innocent computer or server being used as the IRC server?

• Did you access that server without authorization?

• Did you cause harm, alter, or in some way have a negative impact on the innocent computer?

LEGAL??


• Does an infected computer impliedly grant you access to their system if their computer is causing damage to or plaguing your computer or network?

• Wouldn’t a traditional scenario of self-defense apply in this situation?

• Is the only driving factor imminence?

LEGAL??


• Does an infected computer whose negligence allows your computer to be attacked and the attack is ongoing or imminent give you automatic authority to defend yourself by accessing that infected computer?

• Can the victim of a Bot attack claim that their code was automatic, used common protocols, followed the Bot into the infected server (IRCd), and blocked the Bot – did he exceed authorized access?

• Is the only driving factor imminence?


David Willson, JD, LLMCISSP, Security +

Titan Info Security Group, LLC719-648-4176

[email protected]

Or text me @:50500 and text: titansecurity

QUESTIONS??

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Hacking Back in Self-Defense: Is It Legal? Should it Be? David Willson, JD, LLM CISSP, Security + Titan Info Security Group, LLC