The other day when I went to the KisMAC site I was surprised to find the picture above. KisMAC is wireless security software capable of sniffing out access points, cracking the now notoriously weak WEP encryption algorithm and running dictionary attacks on WPA. It also supports GPS device integration and is thus the perfect wardriving tool for Mac users.

A German law, known as 202c (introduced in May 2007), prohibits manufacturing, programming, installing, or spreading software that has the primary goal of circumventing security measures is, which means that some security scanning and hacking tools might become illegal. KisMAC is one of many programs that has had to move out of Germany. In the case of KisMAC, the move was made to neighboring Switzerland.To quote the farewell mesage on www.kismac.de:”With the introduction of §202c German politicians proved their complete incompetence. Law in Germany: possession of child pornography – two years imprisonment. Distribution of security software is half as bad. Even worse politicians still believe in the successful ban of digital information, obviously not reckoning globalization. We are heading straight to a country I do not want to be living in.KisMAC will live on. Different people. Different country”

I share the author’s disappointment with Germany. I had thought it more sophisticated than others in its attitudes toward free speech and scientific advancement. Clearly times are a changin’. The next generation of German computer security professionals will find it much more difficult to practice their art since most of the tools they need to produce it will be illegal to use in Germany. Sadly it means they will be less well practiced at securing computers and the bad guys will find it even easier to ply their trade. The ‘bad guys’ will always use the best tool for the job and the ‘good guys’ must know these tools just s well in order to thwart them. Even white hats must occasionally sport a black hat. You must know your enemy to defeat him.

Categorizing this class of software as weaponry is no new thing (ironically it was first introduced as a result of the significant impact the German Enigma machine had in World War II and it is now the Germans who are feeling the brunt of it, some 60 years later). When Phil Zimmermann invented PGP (a strong form of email encryption) back in the 90′s and distributed it through the Net to Europe he was charged by the FBI for illegally exporting weapons and munitions. The case went on for many years and was eventually dropped, due in part to the fact that PGP was by then available from many different sources. The Internet is such a powerful method of distribution that once the cat is out of the bag it can never be put back in.

And so it is in 2008 KisMAC has moved to Switzerland. And even if it were illegal in Switzerland and every other country on earth the project would still exist and would be distributed through the decentralized genius of BitTorrent technology, the fruit of technological globalization.You can now find KisMAC at http://kismac.macpirate.ch/Enjoy!