Breaking the Law to Catch Criminals
August 28, 2006
This interesting article discuses how a computer hacker helped United States authorities catch a child pornographer. The story presents an interesting issue: Should a computer hacker, who is not acting at the behest of the United States government, be prosecuted for hacking into a child pornographer's computer? Does the hacker's intent make a difference to your analysis? That is, is there a moral difference between the hacker who installs spyware into a computer in an effort to find bank records, but who then finds child pornography; and a hacker who installs spyware solely to find child porn?