Semi OT: Academic Firewall Rules

[David Collier-Brown]

I'll suggest that logging is extremely risky, and something you should
avoid unless served with  a "preservation order" (as far as I know,
no-one has).

When I was at York, the Library walked us through the process that they
used to protect the privacy of borrowers, something they've fought hard
for for several centuries (!).  Records should only be kept while they
are actively needed (DHCP until the lease times out, for example) and
then converted into management counts (5X leases/month for X addresses,
250 conflicts for 134 hours total).

Anyone who keeps records will find out that they're an attractive
nuisance: if they're worth money for blackmail (Lady Chatterley's Lover,
for example), people will steal library circulation records.  Police
will ask for who borrowed "Steal This Book". DHCP logs are attractive to
not-entirely-legal "copyright defence" companies, and detailed HTTP logs
are attractive to advertisers, who will pay you to add tracking cookies
and beacons, and try to weasel them in if you don't agree.

Avoid being a target: talk to the University Librarians about
confidentiality. They're experts!

--dave


On 05/23/2014 02:48 PM, Mauro Souza wrote:
> On my University, everything was logged, and audited somehow. Never
> heard of any punishments.
>
> Logging everything and keeping the records for limited time (a couple
> months) would help against litigation in case of piracy, hacking, or
> mischief. Bandwidth can be controlled by user too, so you could put
> throttle controls in place.
>
> But locking everything down should not be done.
>
> Mauro
> http://mauro.limeiratem.com - registered Linux User: 294521
> Scripture is both history, and a love letter from God.
>
>
> 2014-05-23 13:25 GMT-03:00 Ansar Mohammed <ansarm-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
> <mailto:ansarm-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>>:
>
>     Thanks all for the candid feedback and the trip down memory lane. The
>     combined experience/mindshare on this community is always impressing
>     and humbling.
>
>     I do appreciate the danger of stifling freedom of expression and
>     allowing academics the freedom required to conduct research.
>
>     I have two concerns with a relaxed and open internet access policy
>     * exposure to litigation in the event of piracy
>     * bandwidth consumption.
>
>     BTW, is your internet access audited/logged?
>
>
>     On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 11:32 AM, Mel Wilson <mwilson-Ja3L+HSX0kI at public.gmane.org
>     <mailto:mwilson-Ja3L+HSX0kI at public.gmane.org>> wrote:
>     > On Thu, 2014-05-22 at 21:23 -0400, phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org
>     <mailto:phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>     >
>     >> Then one day, the then president had lunch with someone from
>     IBM and
>     >> suddenly, without any consultation with the committee, we had a new
>     >> computer system, which apparently was a Steal of a Deal.
>     Ultimately, it
>     >> turned out (I heard) that the computer needed additional memory
>     and ended
>     >> up costing much more, but we did get a new computer system.
>     >
>     > That was the IBM way.  They sold straight to the people who
>     signed the
>     > cheques.  I remember a whole benchmark team being recalled from
>     Phoenix
>     > after the news hit that IBM had already closed the deal.
>     >
>     >         Mel.
>     >
>     >
>     > --
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>     The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
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>


-- 
David Collier-Brown,         | Always do right. This will gratify
System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest
davecb-0XdUWXLQalXR7s880joybQ at public.gmane.org           |                      -- Mark Twain

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