A forum on the ethics and legality of active defense was held at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. The idea of retaliating against groups that target government or other sensitive systems is essentially as old as the concepts of network security and defense themselves. It s often discussed in the context of whether governments have the right to go after the perpetrators of such attacks, whether they be individuals, groups or even other governments. The debate has been going on behind closed doors in Washington for years, but it spilled out into the public Tuesday.
Source: https://threatpost.com/debate-over-active-defense-and-hacking-back-crops-rsa-022812/76265/