At my current place of employment, "hacking tools" are banned. On that list is netcat. It is installed on every unix desktop and server, and I use it daily. I have decided to just not point out the stupidity of this -- they might do something that's even more stupid as a response.
I've always found that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission in a large bureaucratic technically simplified corporation, otherwise I'd get nothing done. Ask, and they say "no".
It's too bad you can't expunge lawyers' fees. Yikes.
And no blame, but it's probably a good idea to say, "We're scanning for weak passwords" first. The sysadmin at the library I used to work at ran password crackers occasionally, and sent out an e-mail once saying that he suddenly knew a lot of staffs' boyfriends names. It's a delicate issue.
Yeah that is ridiculous. It's misleading for potential netcat users. And by banning it there can be no discussion about how to actually use it safely and responsibly.
"hacking tools" are banned.
If you are asked about it. The best way is to respond that you use it as a a diagnostic tool or analysis tool.
As for arguing it's not a hacking tool - A person could take something as innocent as VBScript for Office and write viruses with it. Nothing you can do about your tools ability to be abused.
The whole thing plays out like banning sharp knives for chefs' safety. It's a useless, infuriating gesture, but it probably looked good for someone on paper. Politics is an ugly beast.
This is exactly why I got in trouble... It's a stupid policy but there it is not worth fighting the bureaucracy. Also I was using it in a test environment.
