http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/10/uk.hacker.ap/index.html

How many times before has someone caused 700,000 dollars in damages just by typing in an IP address, then hitting enter?

I shudder everytime NMAP is ran by me, and I miss type one number, and it has happened before. Whoops, I just scanned 254 ip addresses… where? .. a quick whois lets me know, and it’s been some bad ones.

Is it illegal for me to scan my own machines from an outside network to make sure I’m closed up? Not that I know of. Is it illegal for me to mistype an IP address and scan military computers? Yup.

Can I type an IP address to Remote Desktop, or into VNC without breaking the law? I sure can, it’s a great thing, remoting into a machine.

What happens when I fudge the A class, and just by chances, hit an open military computer? 5 years and 250K fine.