Re: TECH: accountability and the Internet

["Stephen E. Collins" <lm_net@SEC.MICRO.UMN.EDU>]

In message <199505020236.WAA29785@listserv.syr.edu> "Karen G. Schneider" writes:
> 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.
>
> 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.
 
Mistaken assumption.  Many schools are directly connected to the Internet,
and there is no password involved in getting that connection, and thus
nothing to "share".  And E-mail is pretty easy to spoof, no matter what
tools you are using.
 
> 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.
 
It's not really the place to attack this problem.  The kids could just
as easily make an obscene phone call or mail you an obscene letter, but
you've never told the phone company or post office to "fix it" have you?
 
This is a supervision problem and not a technical problem.  I say address
the source, not the "messenger".
 
 
 
 
 
<a href="http://www.micro.umn.edu/staff/sec/">Stephen E. Collins</a>
University of Minnesota    Fax: 625-6817   sec@boombox.micro.umn.edu