Hacking Back

Overview

  • "Hacking back" refers to a retaliatory and offensive cyber act against a hacker. The legality of such conduct is the subject of significant debate in both Australia and abroad.

Background

  • "Hacking back" generally refers to the proactive steps taken by the victim of a cyberattack to turn the tables on its assailant in order to:
    • identify the source of an attack, including by probing a cybercriminal's infrastructure for weaknesses or snippets of information that could reveal who is behind an attack;
    • thwart or stop the crime, including by disabling the hacker's malware, or launching distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks; or
    • destroy or steal back what was taken, including by remotely breaking into a target's servers and wiping any data including stolen information or intellectual property.
  • See Gavin Smith and Valeska Bloch, 'The hack back: The legality of retaliatory hacking' (Allens Insight, 17 October 2018)
  • In Australia, computer intrusion and unauthorised access to or modification of data (including data destruction) are offences that were introduced into the Criminal Code via the Cybercrime Act 2001 (Cth). Hacking a hacker outside one's own network therefore runs the risk of committing a criminal offence.

Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) ('Criminal Code')

  • Parts 10.7 and 10.8 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) (‘Criminal Code’) criminalise the following offences:
    • Computer intrusions
    • Unauthorised modification of data, such as the destruction of data
    • Unauthorised impairment of electronic communications, such as denial of service attacks
    • Creation and distribution of malicious software (such as malware, viruses and ransomware)
    • Dishonestly obtaining or dealing in personal financial information

Regulatory & Policy Framework

Relevant Organisations

Industry Materials

This site is powered by FoswikiCopyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding AustLII Communities? Send feedback
This website is using cookies. More info. That's Fine