[darrel1953]

I keep getting email messages that say things like
Hacking With Trojan Horse Programs (Easy for beginners, Spy on your friends, family etc). Are these things legal?

[psi42]

I keep getting email messages that say things like
Hacking With Trojan Horse Programs (Easy for beginners, Spy on your friends, family etc).

Ugh... spam

]
Are these things legal?

Well... I'm not a lawyer.

If you're going to use them to destroy or steal other peoples' stuff, and crack into others' computers, then trojan horses are certainly not legal.

Spyware could be considered a trojan horse (in fact it fits the definition rather nicely) but usually everything it does is outlined (cryptically) in the license agreement you didn't read. :)


I guess a virus in itself is not illegal, unless it is "released."



Probably what the message is referring to is something illegal.
What e-mail program are you using? Some allow you to setup "rules" that will automatically delete an e-mail similar to that one.

[elina]

hi, hacking, in the eyes of the government and so forth, nowadays, usually has a bad connotation, and is frowend upon, and definitely discouraged when used "unauthorized" and/or to cause harm, and thefore, illegal. However, the FBI will respond and take action to a "hacking" incident only when the damage is justified beyond $5,000. If the damage value or amount was less than that, the FBI will shrugged their shoulders and say" Sorry, we just don't have enough manpower to nick pick every little hacking incident."

Now, the kind of hacking you are talking about when you mentioned trojans and spying and such, is considered to be unauthorized and does do harm, because no likes to be spyed upon and injected with trojans or what-have-you.

Nonetheless, hacking, in fact, in the mid-1970's, originally meant, and still does mean, someone who is good at what he/she does, especially with computer stuff. That, is until, the mid-80's when there were a few bad apples who broke into computer companies for illegal purposes. These kinds of people are known as "crackers". From then on, the word "hacker" became a household bad, very bad word.

But when you hear people say oh, I can hack into so and so system or I'm a computer hacker, that does not necessarily mean that he/she is a "bad" hacker. Of course, that depends on the context of a person's intention to do unauthorized harm or not. For example, every year, in October, I think, there is a HACKER CONVENTION, believe it or not, held in Las Vegas, where groups and groups of hackers (good-people computer experts mingled with real bad hackers)convene and test out each other computer wits, test new security system, and/or to do simulations and computations. As long as it's a controlled environment, the harm is "authorized" and is considered "harmless".

Now, for example, a famous hacking story about Apple's founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniack who "hack" into the telephnone system in the mid-1970's to make free calls, OR
the even more famous hacking story when Mike Mitnick--perhaps the all-time most known and best hacker of his time, went on essentially a "hacking spree" for years evading the best mind of his time for 5 years or so in the early 1980's. but was eventually caught and penalized heavily in several ways--like paying fines, staying away from all computer-related and electronic stuff, needless to say.

So, which hacking story do you think causes more harm or is more significant, and is illegal? I think you're smart enough to decide for yourself. But, now, with highten terrorist alert and the like, the FBi is leaving no room for chance.

Now, most people know that our government spies on us citizens everyday without our permission. But does that mean the US government is hacking illegally? Yes and no. That is why hacking really depends on the context of the situtation. But, all most everybody thinks the government is. Take, for example, our e-mail accounts. The FBI does spy on every single piece of e-mail we sent, using a hidden system that they plant at every ISP company called Carnivore, and the FBI is continually coming oput with better system to foil the really "bad hackers" because Carnivore has already been hacked.. :)) ;D ;)

[darrel1953]

Thanks for the great reply. Here is another hacking related question. When I am using my computer ultimately Norton antivirus software tells me that someone is trying to put a trojan horse on my computer and even gives me their IP address. What can I do with that knowledge? Thanks: Darrel

[elina]

Darrel, sure, you're welcome. :DI'm glad to be of any help.
Now, the question you posed is a pretty good one.. about trojans and ip address. You do a lot with that knowledge, and it can get pretty sophisticated.

First, let's start from the basic of what an IP address is. You already know what a trojan is. Armed with knowing about an IP address, you can locate where a computer or system is, and through an IP address, you can find out where the trojan might be located and do something about it, such as reporting it to the FBI. More precisely, an IP address usually identifies your network card in you computer, instead of your computer itself. However, pinpointing exactly where the source of the trojan is throughout the entire world, is very tricky and can get very complicated, even for security experts and professionals like SYMANTEC or the FBI. To find true hackers, it is literally like finding a needle in a haystack, only much, much more difficult! ;)

IP address is the internet's way of organizing and identifying computers and/or devices--each computer or device is known as a host that is usually located on part of a network of some kind on the internet and ultimately assigned by a governing authority of the government known as the IANA. So, an IP address is a unique number that identifies both a host & a network that a host is on.

For example, www.yahoo.com is a network--known as a domain. Www is a host on the network yahoo.com. And the IP address of www.yahoo.com is 66.218.71.80. The network is 66 , and the host is 218.71.80. Or, if you have, say, AOL as your ISP, its IP address is 64.12.187.24. The network here is 64 and the host is 12.187.24. You can tell which # is a network and which # is a host by an IP address's class or category.

IP addresses are divided into 3 classes: A, B, and C for the public to use. There are also classes D and E but those are reserved for specia research use and not permitted for the public. Networks from big companies are usually assigned class A--such as YAHOO, AOL, or HP. I can go into more detail but suffice it to say IP addresses can be disguised or spoofed by using a router, firewall, or a proxy server between a computer and a network. What that means is, in these cases, an IP address will identify a router and so forth but not necessarily the computer that you want to locate. And what's even worse, hackers use techniques such as DENIAL of SERVICE ATTACKS to confuse the server on the network, meaning hackers will use other computers and bombard a server with all those computers at once. Or, hackers can "hop" from one computer to another. Darrel, you can imagine how difficult pinpointing the source of the problem can be.

Now, there are some tools and websites you can go to to find out a computer or system's IP address. For example, you can use the most commonly used tool called PING right from your own computer. Just go to START-->PROGRAM-->DOS PROMPT if you have WIN 98, or START-->PROGRAM-->ACCESSORIES-->COMMAND PROMPT if you have WIN ME, 2000, or XP.

You can also go to http://grc.com/id/idserve.htm--the most popular and most trusted anti-hacking site--,

http://www.jaddo.net/forums/index.php?act=Util to find out a computer's IP address or a domain such as www.yahoo.com.

With your permision, there are sites that can live scan or probe your computer's security setting right away to see if you are vulnerable to attacks. Just go o to http://www.securitymetrics.com/portscan.adp OR https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2. :D