Re: how to deal with port scan and brute force attack from AS 8075 ?

[William Herrin <bill () herrin us>]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 5:36 AM, Bacon Zombie <baconzombie () gmail com> wrote:
> I would ignore the portscans since there is nothing wrong with portscanning
> the Internet.

You might want to check with your lawyer on that. If you
_intentionally_ port-scan a computer located in Virginia without the
owner's permission (and do nothing else, just port-scan it) it's a
class 3 misdemeanor under 18.2-152.1, et seq. That's up to a $500 fine
for each computer you scan. By comparison, shoplifting is a class 1
misdemeanor while possession of a schedule V narcotic is another class
3.

A key word here is "intentionally." Poking at it by mistake (e.g. you
thought it was a different computer which you had the authority to
scan) is not a crime. Nor, most likely, is less aggressive behavior
which would not ordinarily be part of gaining unauthorized access,
such as pinging or tracerouting.

Not that I've ever heard of someone being fined but you're definitely
in to "something wrong" territory.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William Herrin ................ herrin () dirtside com  bill () herrin us
Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>