All news
Russians were told about the benefits of "white hackers"
"There is a common belief in society that hackers inevitably end up in prison because they are not legalized in terms of their relations with the state. "I believe that mechanisms of public stimulation (popularization, explanatory legislation at the state and judicial level) in the area of white hacking will allow good research principles that white hackers bring to their activities to be brought out of the criminal environment," his words are quoted in a press release received by the Vzglyad newspaper.
EdgeCenter CEO Mikhail Shurygin, Chairman of the ROCIT Committee on Cloud Technologies, Hosting and Information Security, emphasized that white hat hackers play an important role in ensuring cybersecurity and their activities should be supported and encouraged, not restricted.
"But I would say that if you want to do vulnerability testing of critical infrastructure and government enterprises, you need to verify the identity of white hat hackers. Regulation needs to be balanced to promote the development of the industry and protect the rights of all participants in the process," he said.
Chairman of the Committee on Legislative Activity of ROCIT, Dean of the Law Faculty of the Higher School of Economics Vadim Vinogradov provided his colleagues with a comparative analysis of the legal practice of different countries. The speaker focused on the USA and the European Union, making it clear that in these jurisdictions the laws in the field of information security are stricter, but at the same time many actions of white hackers are decriminalized.
"Individuals who in good faith gain access to a computer system to test, investigate, or fix security holes or vulnerabilities are immune from prosecution under this Act. These guidelines establish for the first time that fees should not be charged for security checks that are not conducted in good faith. "That is the official position of the U.S. Department of Justice," he said.
Representatives of the white hat hacker community agreed that the court is often underqualified and expressed their willingness to participate as independent experts. They also noted the existing paradox, which is that the same program can be used for both legal and criminal purposes. “Hacker programs are essentially the same, regardless of their creator. Both those used by white hat hackers to find vulnerabilities and those created by black hat hackers to attack perform the same function: hacking. The only difference is the intent. Some use it for protection, others for harm. Therefore, it is important to enshrine this point in law, based on the purpose of use, and not simply judge the presence or absence of a hacker program.”
Earlier, the State Duma approved a project to legalize “white hackers”.