Hacking back in self defense

1/10/2015 Page 1
Hacking Back in Self-Defense:
Is It Legal? Should it Be?
David Willson
Attorney at Law
CISSP, Security+
Titan Info Security Group
and
Azorian Cyber Security

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David Willson
david@titaninfosecuritygroup.com
 Owner of Titan Info Security Group,
LLC, providing enhanced cyber
security and liability reduction or
elimination
 Retired Army JAG officer
 Advised the DoD and NSA on
computer network ops law
 Legal advisor to what is now
CYBERCOM
 Published author and active speaker
 Licensed attorney in CO, NY, and CT
 Member ISSA and InfraGard
 Holds CISSP & Security+
certifications

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Legal Disclaimer
This presentation is made available for educational purposes only
as well as to provide general information and a general
understanding of the law, not to provide specific legal advice.
By viewing and participating in this presentation, you understand
that no attorney-client relationship is formed.
This presentation and material herein should not be used as a
substitute for actual legal advice from a licensed attorney in your
state with whom you establish an attorney-client relationship.
The ideas presented are only theories and should not be
considered authorization or advice to take action and/or violate
the law.

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David Willson Articles and Lectures
 “An Army View of Neutrality in Space: Legal Options for Space
Negation,” The Air Force Law Review, Vol. 50, 2001
 “A Global Problem: Cyberspace Threats Demand an International
Approach!” Armed Forces Journal, July 2009; ISSA Journal,
August 2009; lectured on the subject at CSI (as keynote) and
RSA
 “When Does Electronic Espionage Become an Act of War?”
CyberPro Magazine, May 2010; ISSA Journal, June 2010;
lectured on the subject at International Cyber Crime Conference
 “Flying through the Cloud: Investigations, Forensics, and Legal
Issues in Cloud Computing” at CSI and HTCIA
 “Ethical Use of Offensive Cyberspace” at RSA

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$78,000 stolen
$151,000 stolen
$241,000 stolen
$115,000 stolen
Problem: Hackers and their botnets plague the
networks of many businesses around the world!
Jobs

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500 Executives Surveyed…
 “One thing is very clear: The cyber security programs
of US organizations do not rival the persistence,
tactical skills, and technological prowess of their
potential cyber adversaries.”
www.pwc.com/cybersecurity
 One sad reality is despite all the warnings, companies
and individuals continue to fail to implement basic
security practices.

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More Statistics
 Attacks against small and medium-size businesses
up 60%
 400 companies surveyed over a four-week period
admit to approximately 72 attacks per week on their
networks, with one successful each week
 Pentagon is attacked 6 million times per day (2008)
 150,000 malware samples per day (Sophos)
 Zero Day attacks ever increasing

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Coreflood Botnet and CryptoLocker
 Computer virus used to steal personal and financial
information from the machines it infects
 Stolen info can be used to steal funds, hijack identities,
and commit other crimes
 FBI estimates that Coreflood enabled fraudulent
transfers that cost businesses hundreds of thousands
of dollars before the agency shut it down (Government
Security News, John Mello, Jr.)
 Ransomeware

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Cost of Breach (Ponemon Study 2013)

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Losses (Ponemon Study 2013)

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What is a bot or botnet?
 Bot or web robots
 Software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet.
The largest use of bots is in web spidering, in which an automated
script fetches, analyzes, and files information from web servers at
many times the speed of a human. Recently, bots have been used
for search advertising, such as Google Adsense.
 Botnet
 Collection of infected computers or bots that have been taken over
by hackers and are used to perform malicious tasks or functions. A
computer becomes a bot when it downloads a file (e.g., an e-mail
attachment or malware on a web site) that has bot software
embedded in it. A botnet is considered a botnet if it is taking action
on the client itself via IRC channels without the hackers having to log
in to the client's computer. The typical botnet consists of a bot server
(usually an IRC server) and one or more bot clients.

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How a Bot Works
 Botnets have different topologies or command and
control (CnC) structures
 Most, it appears, use a compromised server as an IRC
server, or referred to as the IRC daemon (IRCd)
 Multiple bots will communicate with the IRCd via a
“phone home” function
 Single point of failure: If the central CnC is blocked or
otherwise disabled, the botnet is effectively neutered
(this will become important as we get into the theory)

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More Definitions
 Spam
 Add-ons
 Cookies
 MyLife.com
 ReUnion.com
 Google

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Is Hacking Back Self-Defense?
 No
C.H. “Chuck” Chassot of the DoD Command,
Control, Communications & Intelligence office: “It
is the DoD's policy not to take active measures
against anybody because of the lack of certainty
of getting the right person.”

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Is Hacking Back Self-Defense?
 Yes
 Timothy Mullen, CIO of AnchorIS, Inc.: People should be
allowed to neutralize one that is unwittingly spreading
destructive Internet worms such as Nimda
 Jennifer Stisa Grannick, litigation director at the Center
for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School: “This is
a type of defense of property. There is a lot of sympathy
for that (kind of action) from law enforcement and
vendors because we do have such a big problem with
viruses.”

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Response
Nothing
Block
Call
LE
Hack
Back
Remove
Clean-
up
Scenario
Business X finds malware
on their networks in the
form of a bot that is
receiving instructions from
a host server via IRC chat

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Deterrents to Hack Back
Law Ethics Retribution
Illegal to gain
unauthorized
access to a
computer
Highly probable
that hacking
back will affect
innocent
computers or
networks
You may
awaken the
beast!

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Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)
 A law to prevent trespass against a computer or
network
 Applies to any “protected computer”
 Must “exceed authorized access”
 Computer
 Damage
 Loss

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Law
“Whoever intentionally accesses a computer without
authorization or exceeds authorized access, and
thereby XXX”

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Law, cont.
 Unauthorized Access to a Computer
 Computer Trespass
 Self-Defense

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Embed Code in
the “Phone
Home” function
of a Bot.
When the Bot
connects to the IRC
server the Code
disables it.
My Theory

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Common Objections
“You will start a war with China!”
Really?

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Common Objections
“You will impact an innocent
bystander!”
No one in this scenario is innocent.
Victim? Yes!
Innocent? No!

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Legal?
 Did you have the intent to access the innocent
computer or server being used as the IRC server?
 Did you access that server without authorization?
 Did you cause harm, alter, or in some way have a
negative impact on the innocent computer?

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Legal?, cont.
 Does an infected computer impliedly grant you access
to their system if their computer is causing damage to
or plaguing your computer or network?
 Wouldn’t a traditional scenario of self-defense apply in
this situation?
 Is the only driving factor imminence?

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Legal?, cont.
 Does an infected computer whose negligence allows
your computer to be attacked, and the attack is ongoing
or imminent, give you automatic authority to defend
yourself by accessing that infected computer?
 Can the victim of a bot attack claim that their code was
automatic, used common protocols, followed the bot
into the infected server (IRCd), and blocked the bot –
did he exceed authorized access?

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Questions
David Willson
Attorney at Law
CISSP, Security +
Titan Info Security Group
719-648-4176
david@titaninfosecuritygroup.com

Hacking back in self defense

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