Controls?

Dear Mr T (sorry, I couldn't resist...)

I'm afraid you may be missing the point. The point is, just about anything can be defined as a "hacking tool", as the law is too vague. The point is, even a paper-clip can be a hacking tool (or a lock-picking tool.) The point is, there is no exclusion for certified professionals, leaving German networks vulnerable. "If hacking tools are outlawed, only outlaws will have hacking tools."

OK, that's actually three points.

But even if there was some exclusion for "certified professionals", it means that every network admin would have to fork out $$$ to check his network every time he reconfigured it, instead of just doing it himself. Also, these "certified professionals" would probably end being monitored by "the authorities" to such an intrusive degree that many would just look for other work, or other jurisdictions. In fact, such an exception would probably be totally unworkable, due to the difficulties in monitoring it.

Not that they've even tried it...