Honeypots: a sticky legal landscape?

Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal, June, 2003 by Ian Walden

I. INTRODUCTION

With today's enhanced focus on cybersecurity, governments and businesses are looking for effective tools to prevent and detect attacks on their critical information systems. Effectiveness needs to be measured not only in terms of technological feasibility but also in terms of legality. One innovative technique is the use of so-called "honeypots": vulnerable computer systems or networks designed to be attractive to hackers as a target for intrusion. Honeypots can not only deflect the attention of hackers from an organization's "real" system, but they can also provide investigators with the ability to gather detailed and contemporaneous forensic evidence about the hackers.

An intruder into a honeypot may be obtaining access simply as an...