Questions tagged [hacking]
Non-normative tag for questions relating to the use of information technology, typically in unintended manners.
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Is it illegal to save "View Once" media sent on Whatsapp?
It has been found that the "View Once" feature provided by Whatsapp is implemented simply with a flag, and can be trivially bypassed to allow the media to be saved and viewed multiple times. ...
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What does unauthorised mean in regards to access to web sites? [duplicate]
The Computer Misuse Act 1990 makes it an offence in the UK to try and access programs or data on computers when that access is unauthorised. As I understand it in the US the Computer Fraud and Abuse ...
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What consequences could there be for Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;-- when he grows up?
I think it's obvious that Little Bobby Tables's mom has broken the law. Let's assume this is his legal name and does not break any naming laws; it's still probably illegal, because she obviously gave ...
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Is it illegal to head to public but hidden web pages such as admin.php?
I'm someone who's recently been interested in cybersecurity. I learned that most webpages have a text file called robots.txt (like example.com/robots.txt) that holds webpages that are public but are ...
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Is a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connection a phone call by legal definition?
Is a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) considered a phone call by legal definition? As such, could I use state laws such as Washington State RCW 9.61, for instance, to pursue civil action against someone ...
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Imagine that I am some random person in an ordinary democratic country. Can I hack or spam or scam hostile foreign governments?
Imagine that I am some random person in an ordinary democratic country. Can I hack or spam or scam hostile foreign governments?
E.G. a DDOS attack on the servers of the Russian Rosgvardia or black fax ...
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How do laws against computer intrusion handle the modern situation of devices routinely being under the de facto control of non-owners?
Current versions of Microsoft Windows will automatically update themselves.
That's usually great, but they also are designed to update themselves even if the owner of the device wants them to not do ...
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Legal implications of unsecure bluetooth device
I have recently learned about a high-tech premium bed base that incorporates Bluetooth speakers, plus massage actuators and other features controllable via a smartphone app.
Like many insecure ...
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Is distributing software that makes modifications to video games legal?
Unlike most game mods (which are, to my knowledge, a distribution of a copy of modified game software), I'm writing a small desktop application which allows users to make their own custom changes (...
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I have found my email address online in a .txt file. What should be my next step? [closed]
A few days ago someone tried to log into my bank account, the attempt was unsuccessful but it was quite concerning. I’ve spent the past weekend moving my most important accounts to alternate emails ...
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Should my hosting service return part of my annual fee if my site was hacked? [closed]
I’m an artist, and I have a website on the artist hosting service, Artspan.com. Unfortunately, recently their hosted websites were hacked and some of us lost all our uploaded images. They have said ...
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Is it a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to use my work computer to browse Facebook?
My employer recently sent out an email stating work computers being used for personal activities such as browsing social media will be considered unauthorized access and that any past, present, or ...
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What year did Spain outlaw computer virus spreading?
What year did Spain outlaw malware (computer virus), in the public side of their Civil Legal System? I am also interested in what the penalty would be, as having read through their criminal Articles ...
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Is it illegal to download passwords in bulk from the dark web to make a password checking tool to help people?
I remember some password managers like Google's would give me a warning about passwords that have been compromised.
My question is this. How is Google or any company able to see that the password I ...
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Is it against the Computer Misuse Act to bypass a client-side paywall?
A common practice among news websites is to provide articles online, where an initial portion is freely viewable, and the remainder requires an active subscription. However, on numerous occasions, I ...
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Would it be legal to publish a program to factor large semiprime numbers?
If I somehow figured out a way to factor large semiprime numbers in a reasonable amount of time (don't worry, I haven't; this is hypothetical), would it be legal to publish the code?
This could be ...
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Legal implications of printing something remotely to tell the owner their printer is vulnerable?
Commonly, wireless printers in homes and corporate settings can be configured incorrectly, exposing them to the internet. This can be a major security vulnerability, and can allow anyone to not only ...
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Are flash loan attacks legal?
A new form of "money making activity" has emerged in recent years, the flash loan attack. In very rough terms, a loan of some cryptocurrency is taken out, the cryptocurrency is used in some ...
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Can disrupting an online video game be illegal?
Imagine for example, a person makes an online game unplayable by flooding the game with bot accounts, winning games through cheating etc, but the person doesn't steal any data and they aren't ...
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What are some laws related to break into others (scammers) computers?
On Youtube, We can find videos of some tech guys controlling others (scammers) computers without permission.
Not sure how they did it, and this is not a question about how do they know which computers ...
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Is it legal for BMW owners to enable heated car seats without paying the subscription fee?
Its been recently reported that:
BMW is now selling subscriptions for heated seats in a number of
countries — the latest example of the company’s adoption of
microtransactions for high-end car ...
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What parts of cracking (tampering with the copyrighted software) are actually illegal?
I would like to know whether software cracking is considered illegal broadly (in the way that drugs are, for example, broadly illegal in many western countries), or is it a more complex question. I am ...
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Is it legal to cheat in single player games with no in-app purchases?
I had a single player free-to-play (gratis, but not libre) game on my phone a couple years ago. It has no in-app purchases; AFAICT it's completely funded by ads. One feature of it is that you can get ...
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Is it legal to reverse engineer Web APIs used by websites?
The library in my town has a Web site that allows you to check books out online and pick them up at the library. I would like to write a custom program to do this from the command line on my computer. ...
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Have draft SCOTUS opinions been leaked before?
A draft opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson has been leaked. Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy has claimed:
It is totally unprecedented for a draft opinion to be leaked.
Is it unprecedented, or ...
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Malicious actions by individual moderators
This is a follow up on a previous question.
Using Stack Exchange as a example, moderators should be able to destroy the site within minutes by automated means. There is no meaningful terms of service.
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Would a botnet be illegal, even if the terms of service state everything it will be used for (assumming that all uses will be legal) [closed]
Basically the title. Will a botnet be illegal, even if users consent to everything the botnet will do, and everything the botnet does is legal? (In the US, Colorado)
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Legality of Avast Vulnerability Scanning on Networks
I observed behavior from certain Avast security products, where the products will scan other computers/devices in an internal network for security vulnerabilities.
I noticed that the behavior from ...
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International Cybercrime Based in China. Who's Jurisdiction is it?
Quick question... I got my crypto wallet hacked. I live in Canada. Offender lives in China. After the theft, he deposited the money into Huobi, whose HQ is also in China. I did some preliminary ...
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Can it be illegal to press f12 in a web browser?
There is a case in the news where a journalist identified a security issue in the web site of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that exposed 100,000 social security numbers....
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Legal implications of using corporate infrastruture in cyber attacks against Russia [closed]
Recently, our data centers have been migrated from Ukraine to central Europe. Instead of shutting down, we intend to dedicate the infrastructure to launching cyber attacks against Russian state ...
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Suppose you were hacked and harassed using the data stolen
Theoretical situation for a cybersecurity course discussion (something of a table-top game):
Suppose you are researching a politically controversial topic and someone hacks your computer and starts ...
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Is it legal to publish free offline cheats and at the same time have a Patreon for donations?
I am a person who like to do a lot of things for living. I was wondering of releasing offline cheats for free with a Patreon for donations ONLY. Is it illegal to do that or legal? I really need a ...
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Under US law, is it illegal to write a self propagating computer worm
Suppose a person creates a self-propagating computer worm that:
does not modify or delete any of the victim's files
rather displays a funny message to the user
scans other computers and spreads ...
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Legal status of Cellebrite hack
The CEO of Signal has posted the discovery of security vulnerabilities in Cellebrite products. These products are used by police to evade security on seized mobile devices and thereby download the ...
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Game Hacking Legality [closed]
Hello I have a question about if game hacking is legal in Florida. What I mean by game hacking is making a software and selling it (not altering the games original code or selling anything with the ...
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Can Law Enforcement in the US use evidence acquired through an illegal act by someone else?
There are reports on the internet this morning that a group of people were able to hack Parler and download around 70tb of data from the servers before AWS ceased hosting the platform. There are ...
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Publishing research obtained by violating Google's TC
I believe Google's Terms and Conditions prohibit bot scraping: that is, submitting lots of (automated) search queries in a short time.
This is enforced by mechanisms such as CAPTCHAs and IP ...
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Is using proxies to circumvent rate limit to scrape data legal in India?
I'm in India, and this is what the Indian Information Act of 2000/66F says on the matter:
Indian Information Act 2000/66F
Punishment for cyber terrorism.– Whoever,– with intent to threaten the unity, ...
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Is it legal to hack a hacker back (in the US)?
I was wondering if it's legal to do what most people call a "hack back." Suppose someone tricked you into downloading software onto your computer that was designed to steal your data, but it ...
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Is there any country where hacking back is legal?
Building on this unanswered question: Under what circumstances could laying hacker "traps" cause civil or criminal liability for non-law enforcement civilians?
I was wondering if there was ...
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Is unintentional one-time bug abuse illegal?
Concrete examples :
Someone making API requests through a banking platform, withdrew many times in succession, and through some miracle bug they all went through.
Someone unaffiliated with a ...
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What happens after bugs are found in a private residence? [closed]
I have evidence of being spied on by complete nobodies and weirdly threatened malicious people on the web so I have a bug sweep coming up. What should I do after the technician finds hidden cameras ...
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Which kind of lawyer does a hacking and spying victim need? [closed]
In the event that someone hacks your devices in order to let people on the internet spy on you every day, which kind of lawyer do you need to attack the situation? Based on what's being done and how ...
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Is it illegal to refuse to fix a hacked website?
Suppose there's a website or a server that has been hacked. There is no personal data stored anywhere, so there hasn't been a real data breach, because basically there's no valuable data to steal at ...
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Under what circumstances could laying hacker "traps" cause civil or criminal liability for non-law enforcement civilians?
The answer to If a hacker is infected as a result of their actions, is the victim liable? that explained laying a trap to injure someone could go either way depending on the severity of the injury and ...
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If a hacker is infected as a result of their actions, is the victim liable?
If a hacker gained unauthorized access to a computer network, downloaded a virus that was on a computer and infected their own system, would the victim of the hacker be liable for damages?
Does it ...
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How can I safely provide a free online service?
I am developing a website for secure sharing credentials. Similar to https://www.cloak.sh/ .
How can I protect myself and hopefully eliminate all my liability, while still providing a service "...
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Is it legal to sell cracked gaming accounts?
A coworker recently said they have a small side business in which they were selling cracked gaming accounts.
Is this legal?
It sounds very illegal, but I haven’t found anything definitive on Reddit ...
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If a website receive an attack by an Hacker, who is evanutally liable for the data breach?
I'm trying to create a very general example, i know there are surely hundreds of variables that must be analyzed but even just some general considerations from who had some experience can be useful ...
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