Get out of jail cards (Statement of work authorizing access, was Re: Pentester convicted..)

From: cwright@bdosyd.com.au
Date: Sat May 13 2006 - 02:51:32 EDT

('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is) Hello,
First it is clear that people need to get hold of a good contractual draftsman.

The documents on the lists supplied are ok as a generalised idea of what is going to be a base framework for a contract, but nothing more.

Certain liability can not be excluded and there are requirements on how exclusion clauses are drafted.

I do not care how good you think that you are, mistakes will occur. This may be your error or that of the firm you are scanning, but at the end of the day the prime responsibility in any Tortious action (eg negligence) falls to the Pen tester.

The fact that the company your are scanning owns 7/8’s of a C Class but not the last few addresses and does not mention this does not absolve your liability if you fail to discover this before doing damage. It may help lower the amount – or they may be contributory in damage, but you will still be hit with costs.

At the end of the day, no matter how well you have drafted the clauses and the contract as a whole, good professional liability insurance helps. In fact the courts expect it to be in place and are more likely to treat you as cowboys without it.

Regards,
Craig

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