If it's anything like the Dutch or German infosec agencies, "worst of both worlds" is about as far from the truth as you can get. Maybe it works that way in Saudi Arabia but it's not "reporting yourself" here
I wouldn't trust anything like that in Germany, where everything is rules-based. Hacking is illegal, so if the police find out you hacked and can prove it, they will arrest you and you will be convicted, period. In Germany there's no common sense applied to the rules. Arguing that you hacked and then reported it responsibly won't reduce your criminal penalty for hacking.
> I wouldn't trust anything like that in Germany [...] Hacking is illegal, so if the police find out you hacked and can prove it, they will arrest you and you will be convicted, period.
This is rather hilarious to read as a reply to someone whose day job is literally hacking in Germany. We document it for tax reasons and sometimes are even allowed to publish it, too! Besides paying clients, we also "hack" (read: help secure) projects and blog about the vulnerabilities we've found and what the disclosure timeline was
Clearly this doesn't work as a blanket statement and coordinated vulnerability disclosure is a thing here. I can agree there are caveats but the statements as made aren't accurate
As for dealing with the government, so far as I'm aware, none of us have had bad experiences with the German IT security agency (BSI) whenever a vendor was being uncooperative (healthcare vendors tend to be very, let's say, German about whose responsibility it is when their device sends genital pictures over a network with no encryption or authentication option available in the software)
Apart from a certain general incompetence in IT related topics, common sense is a rather important part of German legal interpretation. Intention, proportionality and such.
There are some infamous counter-examples, but you can find these in any country and it's these that make the news.
It's starting to be so common on the internet, clueless US residents not really grokking things aren't as bad in other places as in the US, that I'm starting to think that maybe this is some sort of psychological defense mechanism? You've heard how great and exceptional your country is since you were born, and suddenly evidence is being pointed to that maybe that wasn't so true, so your brain is trying to reason away how clearly this can't be true, you cannot been lied to your entire life...
That sounds a lot like the assumption that crime rates are better in less populous areas - just because there is less reporting doesn't mean that it isn't there.
Have you been to the US? If not how can you be certain that the US is truly worse?
> You've heard how great and exceptional your country is since you were born, and suddenly evidence is being pointed to that maybe that wasn't so true, so your brain is trying to reason away how clearly this can't be true, you cannot been lied to your entire life...
You are describing cognitive dissonance, I suspect most people do have it about their country (unless they really like history in which case they are aware of the fucked up things their country has done and there is much less dissonance) but the average US citizen is very much an outlier by the standard of western countries.
Even the smart ones who do know history often only know their side of it from their point of view and many of them have very little understanding of the world beyond their borders (because they simply have no need to).
They just seem to blur the border between nationalism and patriotism more than most countries.
Is this purely theoretical? Asking since we don’t wanna encourage making the world worse if there is indeed a clever way to stay safe - has anyone been hassled after reporting to the Finnish Cyber Security Centre?
Well I'm a Finn and have reported my findings to the FCSC. Zero hassle. The folks at Traficom are a really nice and smart bunch, I have had chats with them face to face a couple of times. They are very well versed when it comes to potential issues or hassles with disclosing exploits. From what I've seen, everyone at Traficom really just wants to keep internet and information systems safe, and to provide the best support possible for IT professionals regarding cyber/information security.
This is what their privacy statement says: “Data breach information, including personal data, can be exchanged confidentially with other authorities relevant to the breach when required or permitted by law. The person who fills out the form is asked if they consent to the transfer of information to another authority."
Reporting software vulnerabilites in Germany is the dumbest thing you can do, you WILL be arrested. There is a recent case where some company had a hardcoded database password in their EXE file and if you open it with e.g. Notepad you can see it and this already counts as "illegal hacking". https://www.heise.de/en/news/Federal-Constitutional-Court-re...