Re: Hackers and gateway systems

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb () research att com>]

In message <381CD85B.708867D7 () one net au>, Benjamin Smee writes:
> "Steven M. Bellovin" wrote:
> > In message <1310EC43D374D211A74100104B09669004E82008@DUNTX004>, "Plymale, C
> hery
> > l" writes:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > Does anyone know of a court case where a hacker was exonerated in part
> > > because of "Welcome"  was displayed on a gateway system?
> >
> > I've looked very hard for that, and repeatedly asked folks who claim they k
> now
> > of such a case to send me a pointer.  Thus far, I've found nothing.
> >
> > I repeat my plea -- if you know of such a case, please send me some sort of
> > verifiable citation or pointer.
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I cant send a verifieable link, however, I can say in my previous job as
> a security consultant I used to give a number of presentations and as
> part of those presentations I had material that talked about a couple of
> cases in the USA that illustrated this precise point. I believe the
> bottom line was not necessarily the wording of "welcome" but rather that
> there was no statement clearly indicating to the attacker that what he
> was doing was illegal. Apparently the attacker claimed ignorance of any
> wrong doing and was let off in at least the two cases I used to cite.

Lots of security consultants have said this -- but none have been able to 
point at a particular case.

                --Steve Bellovin