digital arms

[fugu]

Is the USB rubber ducky protected in the United States under the second amendment? I'm no lawyer but it seems like it might just be.

[Sildaekar]

No, the second amendment means "weapons" and the supreme court has interpreted it as weapons that can do bodily harm (firearms, knifes, etc)

[overwraith]

The fact that it can be used as a cyber "arm" does not really factor in. The USB rubber ducky is a tool for penetration testers, and provided you are not using it on people's computers who did not sign a waiver you are in the clear. Furthermore it is simply a USB keyboard which types from a file. There are teensys which you can build at home to achieve the same effect, so knocking the USB rubber ducky off the market would be fairly pointless. Penetration tester tools are legal, and penetration testing is a legitimate profession. Regardless of whatever our politicians try to legislate concerning this matter the fact of the matter is that you can either ban penetration testing tools, and leave our networks wide open to foreign hackers, or you can encourage the pen testing market and therefore create more secure networks and applications. Obliterating pen testing tools would be dangerously naive being that companies, and government organizations typically do not modify their behavior without some demonstrable (demonstratable?) flaw or exploit which can be lodged against their systems. Once the exploit has been launched, and the results have been shown then they tend to have some impetus for change. Wouldn't it be just like the government though to train up all these young and interested ethical hackers/security researchers, and then take away the tools of their trade because they are afraid of them falling into the hands of script kiddies?

Edited June 8, 2015 by overwraith