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PageOne Networking When is hacking a crime? By Robert Lemos Special to ZDNet September 23, 2002, 4:32 AM PT Kevin Finisterre admits that he likes to hew close to the ethical line separating the "white hat" hackers from the bad guys, but little did he know that his company's actions would draw threats of a lawsuit from Hewlett-Packard. This summer, the consultant with security firm Secure Network Operations had let HP know of nearly 20 holes in its Tru64 operating system, But in ate July, when HP was finishing work to patch the flaws, another employee of Finisterre's company publicly disclosed one of the vulnerabilities and showed how to exploit it-prompting the technology giant to threaten litigation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Finisterre, who was not hired by HP, now says he'll think twice before voluntarily informing another company of any security holes he finds. " vy advertisement jesktops Starting at Only $479! {Monitor not included. ice You Can Afford. a2) want to be—black hat or white hat," the 22-year-old consultant said. In recent months, hackers of all backgrounds have been forced to tethink their practices while facing a roundhouse combination of the DMCA, heightened law enforcement activity and deeper scrutiny by employers. The issue pits two extremes against one another. At one end are the corporate-security experts who wear their metaphorical white hats because they adhere strictly to regulations and tend to believe that Page 1 of 6 ZDNet: Reviews | Downloads | Tech Apptications working Tell us your opinion! Ct ZDNet News Fi} [ed] Tech Update Managing storage: What you need to know Is something fishy with Bluefin? Making mobile data work More networking analysis... News in Brief Election donations through your ISP 02:39PM MusicMatch quits Mac service 01:37PM Dell: Hey dude, party's over 12:34PM Handspring promotes COO 10:25AM SETI@home's future is cloudy 08:40AM More... Commentary RASH Read Tech Update's expert an security and networking foo 77M More... More Commentary... ~ advertisement ZDNet Tech Update Featured Resource Centers ¥ Sybase: Request for mare Info, Whitepapers and more. Hardware, Products and more. News Tools * News Archives eBusinass Hardvrare FBI(19-cv-1495)-1037