Ethical Hacking: (Law, Technology, and Media)

How will governments and courts manoeuvre within the boundaries of protected civil liberties in this new era of hacktivism? This monograph discusses moral and legal issues of ethical hacking and reviews analytics and trends. How will governments and courts protect civil liberties in this new era of hacktivism? Ethical Hacking discusses the attendant moral and legal issues. The first part of the 21st century will likely go down in history as the era when ethical hackers opened governments and the line of transparency moved by force. One need only read the motto “we open governments” on the Twitter page for Wikileaks to gain a sense of the sea change that has occurred. Ethical hacking is the non-violent use of a technology in pursuit of a cause—political or otherwise—which is often legally and morally ambiguous. Hacktivists believe in two general but spirited principles: respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression and personal privacy; and the responsibility of government to be open, transparent and fully accountable to the public. How courts and governments will deal with hacking attempts which operate in a grey zone of the law and where different ethical views collide remains to be seen. What is undisputed is that Ethical Hacking presents a fundamental discussion of key societal questions. A fundamental discussion of key societal questions. Published in English.

Table of Contents:
Chapter I: Why Ethical Hacking? 1.1 You 1.2 Me 1.3 Ethical Hacking Chapter II: Essential Terms and Concepts 2.1 Types of Ethical Hackers 2.2 Definitions and Typology of Ethical Hacking 2.3 Conventional Computer-Security-Threat Model 2.4 Common Methods Used in Ethical Hacking 2.5 Other Relevant Terms Chapter III: Methodology and Quantitative Studies of Ethical Hacking: Evidence-Based Decision and Policy-Making 3.1 Report for Public Safety Canada, 2011 3.2 Summary of Findings 3.3 GDELT Analysis Service—Event Data(with Kevin Kim) 3.4 Google’s BigQuery (with Richard Li) 3.5 Dark-Net Analysis of Malware and Cyber-Jihad Forums 3.5.1 Cyber-Jihad Forums (with Adrian Agius) 3.5.2 Hacking Forums (with Richard Li) 3.6 Observations Chapter IV: Legal Cases Around the World (with Jelena Ardalic) Chapter V: Select Ethical-Hacking Incidences: Anonymous Chapter VI: Select Ethical-Hacking Incidences: Chaos Computer Club, CyberBerkut, LulzSec, Iranian Cyber Army, and Others Chapter VII: Online Civil Disobedience 7.1 Online Civil Disobedience in Context 7.2 Timeline 7.3 Case Studies 7.3.1 Anonymous, Operation Titstorm 7.3.2 German Lufthansa Protest 7.3.3 Twitter #TellVicEverything Campaign 7.4 Observations Chapter VIII: Hacktivism 8.1 Hacktivism in Context 8.2 Timelines 8.3 Case Studies 8.3.1 Anonymous, Post-Christmas Charity Donations 8.3.2 Neo-Nazi Website 8.3.3 WikiLeaks, Operation Payback 8.4 Observations Chapter IX: Penetration/Intrusion Testing and Vulnerability Disclosure 9.1 Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Disclosure in Context 9.2 Timeline 9.3 Case Studies 9.3.1 Australian Security Expert Patrick Webster 9.3.2 Cisco Router9.3.3 LulzSec Hacking to Incentivize Sony to Fix Known Software Bugs 9.3.4 Guardians of Peace, North Korea, and the Sony Pictures Hack 9.3.5 Vulnerability Hunter Glenn Mangham 9.3.6 Da Jiang Innovation 9.4 Observations Chapter X: Counterattack/Hackback 10.1 Counterattack/Hackback in Context 10.2 Case Studies 10.2.1 LulzSec, MasterCard and PayPal, and Barr 10.2.2 Illegal Streaming Link Sites 10.2.3 Automated Counter-DDoS 10.3 The Legalization of Hackback 10.4 Observations Chapter XI: Security Activism 11.1 Security Activism in Context 11.2 Case Studies 11.2.1 Spamhaus Project 11.2.2 Spam Fighter 11.2.3 Botnet Removal Communities 11.2.4 Cyber-Security Researcher Y 11.3 Observations Chapter XII: Ethical-Hacking Challenges in Legal Frameworks, Investigation, Prosecution, and Sentencing 12.1 Criminal Landscape: Convention on Cybercrime and the Canadian Criminal Framework 12.2 Attribution 12.3 Jurisdiction 12.4 Evidence 12.5 Integrity, Volatility of Evidence, and the Trojan-Horse Defence 12.6 Damages 12.7 Sentencing and Dealing with Mental Disorders—Addiction and Autism Spectrum (with PhD candidate Hannah Rappaport) 12.8 Observations Chapter XIII: Ethical Hacking, Whistle-Blowing, and Human Rights and Freedoms 13.1 The Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms 13.2 Whistle-Blowing and Ethical Hacking 13.3 Observations  Chapter XIV: Toward an Ethical-Hacking Framework 14.1 Ethical Hacking in Context 14.2 Encourage Legitimate Space for Virtual Protests 14.3 Guidelines and Policy 14.4 Code of Conduct for Hackback 14.5 Transparency of Government Engagement with Hackback 14.6 Security Research Exemption and Public-Interest Consideration 14.7 Concluding Remarks Bibliography Appendix: Interview Questions