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Tonight I received a piece of email in which the writer invited me to
"suck" his (?) " ----."  I could see from the address that it had been
emailed from within Netscape.  When I plugged the URL into my browser, up
came the home page for an elementary school.
 
I'm calling the administrators to discuss this with them; I'm not emailing
because I'm not sure who has access to the email address--it doesn't sound
as if their system is secure.   From looking at the headers, I'm pretty
sure it did come from their machine, and we'll talk about it.
 
There are two points here worth emphasizing.  First, when you have an
Internet account, you are accountable for what others do with it.  You
should not share the password with anyone--child or adult.  If someone uses
that account to abuse others, you are responsible.  I know there is some
amount of "wink wink nudge nudge" in this area--I know because people call
me up and tell me how they are sharing one account with X, Y and Z, and how
can they set it up so they can each get email, etc?  (Yes, they do call to
ask--which tells me that security training needs more emphasis.) Second,
even if you have a "public" account, you need to make sure your tools can't
be abused.  The security holes in Netscape comes to mind.  Netscape is a
slick groovy tool, but the company's reluctance to work with public-access
agencies such as libraries to develop kiosk modes makes me wonder.  Do you
really want your library trustees or school-board members  receiving email
with your email address on it, inviting THEM to suck whatever?  I don't
thiiiiiinnnnnkkkk sooooooo!
 
I'm not sure what circumstance allowed that piece of email to reach my
mailbox--a security problem, an insecure browser, maybe the librarian had a
heart attack and a child stepped over her lifeless body to send obscene
messages--but take it as a good warning.  No, I'm not saying don't use the
Internet; I'm saying be safe and be smart.  (Btw, the last time I received
a pornographic post on the 'net, I posted it to Usenet, headers and all,
but this time I'm taking pity on the school AND assuming that some user-id
spoofing may be going on, as well.)
 
 
=============================================================
Karen G. Schneider, Blue Highways Internet Services   kgs@intac.com
Cybrarian/Internet Trainer  "Have Powerbook, Will Travel!"
Need a NJ provider?  Free referrals.
Visit Karen's Kitchen at http://www.intac.com/~kgs/
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