Hundreds of companies across the globe are unknowingly employing criminals in their information technology departments. That is because a new law passed by the US House of Representatives, ‘The Digital Millennium Copyright Act’, has made it illegal to even attempt to circumvent measures intended to prevent intellectual property theft. This means it is now a crime to attempt to reverse engineer cryptographic software or test network firewalls for strength. What it means is that the computer security industry has managed to make itself immune to consumer protection and testing, says Bruce Schneier, chairman and CEO of Counterpane Systems. But, in reality, few systems administrators are likely to find themselves up in front of the courts. I don’t think there’s anything enforceable in it, says Russ Cooper, a computer security consultant. What I am concerned about is the dampening effect it could have on the viability of security engineering.
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