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back to article Hack biz rivals or hire cyber-warriors and we'll shut you down, warns EU

Businesses could be wound up if they engage in cyber attacks or fail to prevent staff from engaging in computer hacking or other cyber crimes under new draft laws backed by the European Parliament. MEPs last week voted to support a new EU Directive on attacks against information systems. The new framework would require member …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So when a government agency 'hacks' into a foreign concern they can be wound up?

    Really?

    I'm not being sold on this 'law' being of fuck all value if it's really just about states being able to impose control over people, whilst completely ignoring the spirit of it themselves.

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    1. I think so I am?
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      There's always

      Hacking your competitors and leveraging their network to attack another and getting them "wound up"

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Well if you look at the list involved in the UK "cyber(sex)" defense super hero league you'll spot a few names only a retard would trust and who are almost certainly engaged in wide spread illegal activities at home and abroad.

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  2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Trollface

    Yet another case of politicians' delusions of being able to change reality by issuing laws. The economic impact of cops and judiciary playing whack a mole hasn't even entered the calculation I see. "IMPLEMENT THIS! THINGS WILL BE ... errr... DIFFERENT!"

    Yes, wind those underground crackers up. I dare you!

    Where is the icon of the faithful servant of Louis de Lombard?

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  3. Eradicate all BB entrants

    What will happen is ......

    ..... the first time this law is used will be for someone using whois to find the abuse email address for that IP address that has been attacking their web server.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not far enough

    Sanctions? How about making company directors/higher management automatically individually responsible for any crimes commited by their company or anyone acting in behalf of the company?

    Exceptions, of course, for the DCPP companies as they will need to sail close to the wind in order to protect us.

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    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Re: Not far enough

      Good idea.

      I haven't seen companies w/o boards yet. They will all have to be nationalized. Finally proletarian bliss!

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  5. ops4096

    Good Idea or the Goose calling the Gander black

    I presume that these laws are meant to deter corporates and lords of the realm from hiring private investigators for a spot of industrial espionage or blackmail of inconvenient persons a la the SOCA footnote to the Leveson Inquiry ?

    see:-

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/the-other-hacking-scandal-suppressed-report-reveals-that-law-firms-telecoms-giants-and-insurance-companies-routinely-hire-criminals-to-steal-rivals-information-8669148.html

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Great idea !

    Let's make it more difficult for security researchers and white-hat hackers to look for security vulnerabilities !

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  7. silent_count

    Soo...

    *For example* All Tim Cook needs to do is get some black-hat to DoS a HTC server before telling the courts that he was hired by someone from Samsung, and the EU courts will shut down Samsung.

    This directive has the potential to provide a great deal of entertainment.

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ICO implications ?

    So when a government organisation looses 25 million records of citizens data can that be consider a failure to adequately protect that data?

    When a government organisation monitors so much data, is that considered cyber attack on an individual?

    This is a BS law that is out of touch and should only be considered if the concept of cyber attack is extended to include personal cyber attack by the state or an individual.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "fail to prevent staff" ?

    so the politicians in question are now ordering employers to spy on all computer use by their staff? That'll be popular with privacy campaigners ...

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    1. Intractable Potsherd
      Reply Icon

      Re: "fail to prevent staff" ?

      Yep - it does look like we are all now extensions of our employers, who must now monitor every IT activity we do. The concept of "private time", or time when we are not the responsibility of our employers just went out of the window.

      This is going to lead to some popcorn sessions, I think. Better get the armchair ready.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "fail to prevent staff" ?

        pass the popcorn - some no-win no-fee lawyers have just realised that people access work systems from home PCs, so employers have got to monitor those too ...

        What a wonderful example of a well thought-through policy.

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  10. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Brilliant

    If an employee murders someone on the company's premises he will just be dismissed, if he'd log into his wife's Facepuke account, though, the whole company must be shut down...

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Stupid idea

    This is a stupid idea and if enacted as law it will be ineffectual. The sorts of companies that routinely engage in this sort of thing will be immune from prosecution (Think Tony Blair shielding BAE from prosecution for corruption). Should the unthinkable happen and a successful prosecution be made, the executive, directors and owners will walk away with huge gobs of money and it'll be the employees, customers and creditors who will suffer.

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  12. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    A global joke in their own lifetime is not a hard feat to achieve whenever one considers the EU?

    With the dawning of each new day, do governments and parliaments with those sorts of media pronouncements/mad tales .... which are essentially only closed shop cabals and para-criminalising organisations with vested interests in creating an inequitable and more expensive and costly ignorant power base for themselves ..... increasingly extraordinarily render themselves exposed to be recognised as nothing more than wannabe emperors without the magic clothes and the invisible cloaks [special and/or specialised knowledge] which are vital for services engaging intelligence which either leads and/or disrupts the universal brainwashing process ...... aka Virtual Machine Management of Human Perception in Novel and Noble NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive IT.

    And the beauty is, that inherent arrogance and resultant hubris blinds such titanic minnows to the reality of their position and IT situation.

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