Police blotter: Trojan horse leads to porn convictions

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I dunno

The more I think about this, the harder time I have condemning it.

1. The trojan in question was posted to a newsgroup that specifically caters to pedophiles. Since the material covered by the newsgroup topic is definitely illegal (and yes, it should be illegal for USENET servers to even carry such newsgroups), the chances of an innocent party getting infected would have been very small.

2. While the author of the trojan could have used it to set up a very profitable blackmail business, surely either or both defendents (or their lawyers) would have said something if they had been approached in that fashion (once you've been exposed, there's no reason not to disclose blackmail attempts).

3. The hacker in question did hand over the evidence to the appropriate authorities, instead of taking personal action against the defendents. As stated in a previous post, it is theoretically possible that the photos were plants, but I really can't think of a motive for doing so.

While there's a lot of relevant data that's missing from the article (starting with the actual charges), my reading of the article makes it hard to imagine a more responsible vigilante. I just wish vigilantism wasn't required to catch these people.

Yes, the hacking was illegal and criminal charges would be justified, but it's very hard for me to condemn the action on moral grounds. Certainly the evidence should not be thrown out unless there's good reason to believe it was planted.

Posted by: John L. Ries   Posted on: 08/28/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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