RE: CRIME What do you do with bad stuff?

From: Karol Kulaga (root@private)
Date: Sat Aug 09 2003 - 00:45:24 PDT

  • Next message: Crispin Cowan: "Re: CRIME Software write blocker????"

    Hi Todd, sorry I don't really have an answer for you - never having had such
    a serious breach (knocks on wood). I'm going to share my experiences with
    users, and the wonderful things they bring into my network, which is usually
    bad enough.
    
    I'm personally not going to look through a ?00MB folder of pictures that
    someone dumped on the file server if it obviously contains porn / mp3s of
    the latest pop band - I've told management this and they have agreed. I
    typically just disable the account, save the logs and have the user deal
    with their supervisor. The urge to rm -fr /~user must be overcome.
    Yes, it might be harsh, but I have other things to do besides monitoring
    user's internet activities. It also helps security when someone almost gets
    fired for not locking their workstation / writing their password on a yellow
    post it under their keyboard. Also dated and written instructions from the
    offender's manager to rm -fr /~user is a pretty good way to cover yourself -
    if not the company - it is sometimes comforting to know that some things are
    "above your pay scale."
    
    Now. If you can get management to let you implement this, it is great for
    keeping the amount of porn / mp3s in the workplace down. Driftnet -
    basically it sniffs network packets looking for images and mpeg audio in tcp
    streams and displays / plays them. As the programmer says, "driftnet is an
    invasion of privacy of a fairly blatant sort." Unfortunately it seems the
    project has died, I believe the last update does compile w/o problems
    though. Having it publicly viewable was quite a deterrent. Of course, it is
    a useful tool if only visible to certain people too.
    
    http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/driftnet/
    
    As for the "most offensive stuff" - for stuff like kiddie porn, I'd report
    it to management and then the authorities and CYA every step of the way.
    
    Anyways, your question got me thinking.
    I'm looking into selling some space for offsite backup on my home raid array
    (I have an older 30Gb array, so small amounts of data - and am thinking of
    insisting that everything uploaded to the array be encrypted or be subject
    to immediate deletion - and the keys NOT be given to me. Run this at home,
    perhaps it will pay for a bump in speed for the DSL. I know plenty of people
    who only need to backup a small (50-100MB) amount - everything from family
    photos to term papers to password lists to programs in development and
    patient records for a small medical office.
    
    Mainly I could establish with the consumer that I do not want to see their
    data - establish trust.
    I'm not sure if that would sidestep the legal issue - and I'm not sure what
    the response of the law enforcement community would be. Any thoughts?
    
    Thanks
    KTK
    
    
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-crime@private [mailto:owner-crime@private]On Behalf Of
    Todd Ellner
    Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 11:34 AM
    To: crime@private
    Subject: CRIME What do you do with bad stuff?
    
    
    I realize that the lawyers on the list aren't my lawyers. And police
    officers aren't attorneys. But I have a practical question which maybe some
    of you have come up against. What do you do when Bad Things(tm) get put on
    your computer by someone else - warez, vile illegal images, someone else's
    trade secrets, the sort of stuff that you can get in trouble just for
    having? Do you erase it and get on with your life, call the authorities and
    let them deal with it or something else?
    
    The question came up when I looked at an old webserver and found that it was
    full of MP3s. Someone else had come in and put them in an unused corner of
    the disk. At least I'm pretty sure it was someone else. Nobody in our
    company has that poor taste in music. But suppose it had been something much
    worse. The best advice, of course, is "Ask a lawyer". And I will certainly
    get around to that but would like to take advantage of the specialized
    experience of this group first.
    
    Thanks in advance,
    Todd
    



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