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BBC Hacks 22000 Internet Connected Computer Users

I heard this on the radio this morning. Absolutely brilliant, and I'm astonished it's never been done before. I suspect this will cause more than a few to wake up and take security a bit more seriously, in which case it really is public service broadcasting.
 
But unfortunately I bet the lawyers are rubbing their hands in glee, as this action seems to have violated the first clause in the Computer Misuse Act.
 
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Yes but like BT the BBC are above the LAW of the land bet the government will do nothing, the police.

Time all companies were mad responsible for their actions and made to compensate the customers, computer owner for the invaision.
 
Yes but like BT the BBC are above the LAW of the land bet the government will do nothing, the police.

Time all companies were mad responsible for their actions and made to compensate the customers, computer owner for the invaision.

Good luck with that, this country like all others are run by an oligarchy. :(
 
Yes but like BT the BBC are above the LAW of the land bet the government will do nothing, the police.

if this ever gets investigated, it will prolly be by the same ppl who investigated Phorm which dictated that all users gave informed consent... hell l bet this will end up exactly like the Phorm investigation did.
 
BBC programme broke law with botnets, says lawyer

The programme has said that the activity would only be illegal if those behind it had 'criminal intent', but Struan Roberrtson, a technology lawyer with Pinsent Masons and editor of OUT-LAW.COM, said that this is not true.

"The BBC appears to have broken the Computer Misuse Act by causing 22,000 computers to send spam. It does not matter that the emails were sent to the BBC's own accounts and criminal intent is not necessary to establish an offence of unauthorised access to a computer," he said.

"The Act requires that a computer has been made to perform a function with intent to secure access to any program or data on the computer. Using the botnet to send an email is likely to satisfy that requirement. It also requires that the access is unauthorised – which the BBC appears to acknowledge. It does not matter that the BBC's intent was not criminal or that someone else created the botnet in the first place," said Robertson.

...

Though the activity is likely to have been technically illegal, Robertson said that it is unlikely that the corporation will be punished for it.

"The maximum penalty for this offence is two years' imprisonment. But it is very unlikely that any prosecution will follow because the BBC's actions probably caused no harm. On the contrary, it probably did prompt many people to improve their security," he said.

http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=9863

:hrmph:
 
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Click then ordered its slave PCs to bombard its target site with requests for access to make it inaccessible.

I trust that any affected PC owners whose ISP counts all traffic and who found that they had unexpectedly exceeded their allowance will be sending the BBC a bill for the excess charges incurred.
 
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