Being moral and shit

[centip3de]

As we all have taken up the hobby of hacking, we all know that there are both legal and illegal ways to practice our skills. While it is usually a better choice to do it the legal way, going the illegal route generally provides a better challenge/practice. I personally enjoy just snooping around in places and things that I probably shouldn't be (personal opinion). I'm not asking you to out yourselves, as that would be a waste of a thread and time. I was just going to supply 3 scenarios and see how you guys would go about these:

1. The CP:
Let's say that you're a poor, starving college student as many of us are, and can't afford cable. You decide to put your hacking skillz to some good use and get yourself some Internet from your rich, annoying neighbor. You know that there's a 1% chance of getting caught, as he just learned what a computer was last year. When you finally get the password into his network, you connect on up. But, you can't help but feel mischievous, 'cause, come on, you're a mischievous person. So, you load up your good ol' NMap, and do a quick port scan. This scan happens to reveal that he has a vulnerable port open. After doing some hacking-fu, you start your snooping. It quickly becomes obvious that he not only has several hundreds of gigabytes of CP (child porn) on his computer, and has starred in about 50 more. He appears to also have a fancy for getting drunk and abusing children. His grand-children are coming over for a week long visit next week, which you know, from your recent discovery, can only end terribly. If you call the police, they'll want to know how you got your information, and you'll get booked for hacking. But, if you don't tell the police, innocent children will possibly be raped and abused. Wat do?

2. The idiotic company:
While browsing the Internet one day, on your favorite site, you find a possible security risk. After some testing, you realize that it is so big and obvious, a skiddie could get into it WITHOUT tools. You know it's your rightful duty to report this so they can get it patched as soon as possibly, but, your curiosity gets the best of you. You decide to invade their privacy a bit, and get access to their box through several different exploits. Once on the box, you decide to do a bit moar snooping. You find hundreds of files depicting how this company has been cheating it's customers, and working with Mexican cartels. You also find evidence on how they treat their employees like 4chan treats fat chicks. If you report this, you'll get busted for hacking, and the company could most likely counter-sue your ass off your chair. If you don't, this will continue to happen, the company will continue to feed the ever violent cartels, and some skiddie could find the security hole and take down the website, if not the company. Wat do?

3. The contact:
While fapping to your favorite pron on teh interwebz one day, you realize you have a new email in your inbox. Upon further investigation, you see it's a message from the all powerful skiddish, Anonymous. They've seen your bountiful knowledge on this site, and have seen some of your less legal work else where. They want you in. They're willing to pay you 100,000 $ to take down this corrupt company's website, and servers. Essentially, to DEBAN everything connected to the Internet in their possession. You say, 'Hey, I need the money. The wife (or husband) and I desperately need the cash for college, and got a little one on it's way.'. So, you go to the website, find an easy-peasy vulnerability, beast the fuck out of it, and are in. Once you're in, you realize that Anonymous was completely lying to you and that this company has done nothing wrong. In-fact, it's donating 70% of it's profit (appx. $200,876 (after payroll, and bills of course)) to help starving children in Africa. It seems that the people who contacted you had an idiotic personal issue with the creators of this site. But, if you don't screw with it, you won't be able to pay rent, food, college tuition, and you have a baby on the way. You'll also piss off skiddies with a botnet. But, if you do, then the starving children in Africa will start starving again, and you could go to jail for hacking, and never see your newborn. Wat do?

While these are amazingly extreme situations, it's always fun to see responses to catch 22's like these.
Game on HTS.

[Dahaar]

Okay, first of all, the easiest solution to the first two scenarios would be to sniff out as much evidence as possible and send it to the police, anonymously. But since that would destroy the whole dilemma situation, I'll just neglect it
Personally, I put my own moral standards over the law. With that I don't mean that I would always act self-righteous, but in some cases, especially the first one, I see it as acceptable to hack as long as nobody is hurt in any way and therefore it is my duty to report him and wish for a merciful judge in my case.
But it truly is a difficult situation and I pray to never have to deal with this in real life.

[goluhaque]

Case #1: I won't care whether he has got child porn or grandma-porn. I don't care. But if you really are in a dilemma, go anoynymous(take it literally) and send the info to the police.

Case #2: I would report it partially and ask for $$$.

Case #3: If you got 1337 h4xx0r skillz, you could probably get a better/more high-paying job.

[mShred]

Firstly, I don't see how this thread is anymore relevant to what you initially described. Also, there are so many errors.. Like, it's full of errors. There are a lot of errors. Grammatical errors.

[centip3de]

Firstly, I don't see how this thread is anymore relevant to what you initially described. Also, there are so many errors.. Like, it's full of errors. There are a lot of errors. Grammatical errors.

Wait... Wut? Would you mind further explaining?:o

[limdis]

1. This.
But seriously, compile all information I have and print it off. Drop off target file to police and walk out. Even if the information is obtained illegally due the nature of the material the cops will have to investigate.

2. Contact their leading competition.

3. Even scenario based I'd pass on the job. Not ever a good idea to take jobs of large size right out of nowhere.