Linux Format censored over Learn to Hack guide

Bit Tech reports Barnes & Noble has pulled the latest issue of Linux Format from its shelves due to a controversial "Learn to Hack" feature in the magazine. Issue 154 of Linux Format learns readers how to use the Metasploit Framework exploitation toolkit to take over computers running a variety of operating systems, as well as detailing password cracking, network sfinning, and man-in-the-middle attacks over encrypted protocols, while also covering how you can protect your own system against these attacks.

Cashing in on the free advertising, Linux Format decided to make the guide available for free at TuxRadar Linux.

Despite a warning of the illegalities of using any of the information contained within the article to attack systems which you do not own, the cracking tutorial proved too much for Barnes & Noble. The US bookseller pulled all copies of the magazine from shelves, although it's not yet clear whether it did so at the request of its own management or as a response to complaints from an outside agency.

In a response to Barnes & Noble's apparent censorship, Future has elected to put the content of the article online for free, for those who were unable to read it in the magazine. Quoting security guru Bruce Schneier - 'I believe that the subject is just too critical, too integral a part of our everyday lives, to be left exclusively in the hands of experts' - the magazine's editors have defended the feature while apologising for those who missed out on the magazine.

The publication has also elected to continue with the planned publication of an pro-privacy tutorial in the latest issue entitled 'Beat the CIA,' in response to government plans in both the UK and US to introduce increasingly intrusive communications monitoring and censorship laws.