Once they finalize the cyber laws, you can defend yourself if you ever get caught one day. Then you would be able to argue your case; eg. stealing bank information vs. finding security holes on a website.
If your on a more advanced level, try iptables on Linux. You will need knowledge of Linux and configuring the rules for IPtables. You will have more flexibly to block attacker IP address's, and the sky's the limit with what you can do.