ℛØ௶Ꭿℒ ℋᎯℭᏦℰℛ (question paid in the amount of 0.00119699btc)

Thank you for broadening my horizons, now I know what a pentester is))

Who is a hacker or a pentester from a legal point of view? They are a trespasser, that is, a violator of the boundaries of private property. Such a violation in itself does not yet cause damage to the property owner, but the owner has every right to oppose it.

At the same time, the owner’s arbitrariness in choosing means of opposition is limited. It is one thing to repel the break-in itself (I opened your gate and peeked inside, you glare at me fiercely, as if to say, “what are you staring at,” I close the gate, turn around and walk past), and another thing to pursue the person who carried out this break-in. You are no longer on your own territory, the intrusion is not currently happening, so what are your grounds for using violence?

Such grounds could only be a property claim. The right to shoot a real physical trespasser who has violated the boundaries of your private property arises only because you have strong reasons to assume a real threat to your property. And even then, in most cases, the court considers that such grounds arise only when the property boundary is clearly marked, a “Trespassers will be shot” sign is installed on the boundary, and the violator saw and ignored it.

Thus, even if, by putting in some effort, you managed to reliably determine the identity of the hacker who broke into a particular network resource of yours, you will not be able to legally demand any compensation from them until you explain exactly what damage was caused. At the same time, copying information, even if it is very dear to you, does not cause damage. Now, if, for example, the hacker caused a server malfunction and your online store did not work for two hours—that is already real damage, the size of which can be assessed. As for how property damage is handled under ancap, I have already described that extensively.

Obviously, few people will undertake to spend a vast amount of resources on searching for a hacker and bringing them to court; most, of course, will prefer passive defense, as it is ultimately cheaper. And here, pentesters with their profit motive are the first friends of business. By arranging penetration tests followed by detailed information security recommendations, they will cheaply provide owners of information resources with prevention of hacker attacks.

Of course, the market is unlikely to “solve” hackers completely; this will remain a niche for enthusiasts of exciting intellectual earnings for quite a while. But, having settled down, a hacker will, of course, move into more profitable sectors.