Kina will not be

One of the most spectacular competitions of last year's Positive Hack Days 2011 was the Bear Bear contest, during which anyone could get training and try their hand at breaking various locks. The winners, as usual, received memorable gifts and universal recognition, but we got all the necessary tools from our own home collections.

Last year, everything went off with a bang, and the winners of the competition were Gleb Shepelev, Vitaly Glinsky and Kirill Tyurin. When compiling the Positive Hack Days 2012 competition program, there was no shadow of doubt as to which competition would be one of the hits. But there it was: the legislation of the Russian Federation made its own corrections ... Details are under the cut.

So, a competition called Lock Picking is a non-destructive opening of locks. Anyone is allowed to participate, whether it is a bear cub with experience or an absolute beginner.

As a “white hat" with experience, before we did something good, we decided to check whether it is against the law.

And - voila! - it turned out that Federal Law of December 7, 2011 No. 420-ФЗ excluded from the text of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation part 3 of Art. 138, which formerly read as follows: “Illegal production, sale or purchase of special technical equipment designed to secretly receive information, - shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of up to two hundred thousand rubles or in the amount of the convict's wages or other income for a period of up to eighteen months, or "restriction of liberty for a term of up to three years, or deprivation of liberty for a term of up to three years with deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to three years."

The same law introduces a new art. 138.1:

“Article 138.1. Illegal trafficking of special technical equipment designed for secret information

Illegal production, acquisition and (or) sale of special technical equipment intended for the tacit receipt of information - shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of up to two hundred thousand rubles or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to eighteen months, or by restriction of freedom for up to four years, or forced labor for up to four years with the deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years, or with the deprivation of liberty for a term of up to four years with deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to three years or not. ”



What does all this have to do with locks and master keys? This article was introduced in December 2011 and there are no official comments on it yet. But taking into account the fact that the wording about “special technical means intended for secretly obtaining information” has not changed, the lawyers advised, by analogy, to apply comments to the deleted article to part 3 of Art. 183 code.

The comments suggest under special technical meansunderstand "the means intended, designed, adapted or programmed for the secret receipt of information." At the same time, according to the same official comments, “the list of types of special technical equipment intended for secretly obtaining information in the process of conducting operational-search activities is established by the Government of the Russian Federation”.

In accordance with this list, one of the types of special technical means is the means for secret penetration and inspection of premises, vehicles and other objects (including master keys).

The composition of the crime in question is formal. The crime is over from the moment of the commission of an act violating the specified secret, or the execution of actions for the production,the sale or acquisition of technical means intended for secretly obtaining information. This crime can only be committed with an intentional form of guilt .

It should also be borne in mind that under illegal marketing, acquisition and production, the legislator understands the implementation of these actions without an appropriate permit (license). To find a company that has a license to sell master keys is a task from the realm of fantasy. In addition, even if there was a seller, buying a master key from him would be a criminal offense! We don’t need that.

It’s sad. But maybe there’s still a way? ..


We decided not to give up and continued to look for a solution. There was an idea to ask any of the foreign speakers (for example, Bruce Schneier :)) to bring everything you need, but this turned out to be impossible, as in clause 3 of regulation 2.17 “On the procedure for importing into the customs territory of the customs union and exporting from the customs territory of the customs union technical means intended for tacit receipt of information ”it is said:“ Import and export of special technical means into the territory of the Member States of the customs union by individuals is not allowed ”.

Summing up the legal research, we only say that we needed to answer the following questions.

1. Can a master key for locks be assigned to special technical means intended for tacit information?

Yes maybe.

2. What acts with a master key are not a crime according to Art. 138.1 of the Criminal Code? Is there a legal way to use a master key without a license that does not fall under Art. 138.1 of the Criminal Code?

Criminal liability can only be avoided if we did not make a lock key for the locks, we acquired it (for example, we collect them, and they get into the collection as a gift or an accidental find), and at the same time we do not demonstrate our desire to sell this master key , but just store it for the collection and sometimes show it to third parties.

In other words, our competition balanced on a very fine line. And reinforced concrete “against” was more than timid “for”. After a long discussion, it was decided to cancel the competition this year. Wept glass cube, which we were going to fill with money for the finals of the competition.



PS Despite everything, we have prepared many interesting contests in which you can take part. Information about them will appear in the near future. Follow the news!