[ILUG] Controlling Internet Access

[Justin MacCarthy]

Reminds me the early BOFH


"I go back to the machine room and throw the rest of the breakers to liven
everything up, then login and start deleting users' email. I spot an
interesting off-the-record sexual proposition from our male consultant to a
member of the men's swim team which will make a good motd, so I copy it
there, modify root's owner name to be "Winker" and password to be
"ljkadlkajflkj" (then call the big boss to report a suspected intrusion).
Should be at least a couple of hours of login time before we can sort that
out. In the meantime, people are just going to have to read that message...
I realise the message has been read when I hear the gunshot from behind the
consultant's closed door"

Justin

-----Original Message-----
From: ilug-admin at linux.ie [mailto:ilug-admin at linux.ie]On Behalf Of John
A. Kinsella
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2001 3:18 PM
To: Chris Higgins
Cc: John A. Kinsella; Irish Linux Users Group
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Controlling Internet Access


My main point is/was that the "monitoring" mindset is inconsistent in my
opinion with what I perceive to be the culture of this group.

(Anonymous monitoring is fine - I am referring to tracking people's
web access by name of employee.)

This is of course a matter of opinion (mine) and I would fight to the
death (blah, blah) for the right of others to hold other positions and
post messages exhibiting them.

IMHO, such monitoring is pointless (as Chris implicitly concedes below).
It may be legal but would irritate me almost as much as microphones in
office to monitor conversations. (After all, my employer pays for the
office, electricity, heating etc. so why not?).

John

Today Chris Higgins spoke, saying:

CH> > Has it occurred to anyone (including originator of this thread) that
what
CH> > he is planning is an egregious invasion of (sombodies) privacy? (Even
if
CH>
CH> How come ?  You assume that the users are unaware of the intent  / or
that
CH> they disagree with it - or that they have no choice ...
CH>
CH> The question is a valid question, regardless of your beliefs into it's
CH> privacy impact...
CH>
CH> *Every* company that I've ever worked for has kept the proxy logs,
CH> and the administrators have run reports (identities not published)
CH> of the type of usage which has been the greatest waste of bandwidth.
CH>
CH> This is perfectly valid under the DPA, and I can't see why any employee
CH> would have any objections (the information is anonymous)....
CH>
CH> Now - abuse of that information is something else, the use of it to
CH> track an employees activities is a whole different story - and I can
CH> see why you could raise an objection..
CH>
CH> But it's dead easy to mess with the administrators head - simply cron
your
CH> linux box to wget slashdot at odd hours of the days - it'll jump all
over
CH> the place - especially interesting when it happens at two in the morning
:)
CH> All that overtime - and never appreciated :)
CH>
CH> As to restricting access by user - what's wrong by that - it's not
CH> very nice if you expect full and free internet access as a perk
CH> of your job - but if it's not a perk of your job - what rights do
CH> you have to claim it ?
CH>
CH>
CH> > he has been asked to do it by an employer.) IMHO it seems rather
CH> > inconsistent with the general culture of this user group.
CH>
CH> To provide cool ways to get linux into every organisation ?
CH> We'll stop at nothing ! :0)
CH> >
CH> > Or maybe it is a wind-up.... :-/
CH> >
CH> > John
CH> >
CH> > John A. Kinsella		Ph: 	+353-61-202148 		(Direct)
CH> > 					+353-61-333644 x 2148  	(Switch)
CH> > Mathematics Dept.		e-mail: John.Kinsella at ul.ie
CH> > University of Limerick		FAX: 	+353-61-334927
CH> > IRELAND				Web:    http://jkcray.maths.ul.ie
CH> >
CH> > Today Dermot Beirne spoke, saying:
CH> >
CH> > DB> Folks,
CH> > DB> I need to implement a solution that will allow me to grant
Internet access
CH> > DB> to people based on their logon usernames + password for a Windows
Domain
CH> > DB> that are logging into.  I also need to be able to monitor or
report on
CH> > DB> sites visited and restrict site access by user, as well as
speeding up net
CH> > DB> access by the use of caching of pages.
CH> > DB>
CH> > DB> I'd like to use a Linux solution for this if possible.
CH> > DB>
CH> > DB> Can any of you point me in the right direction to get started so
that I
CH> > DB> don't end up going around in circles before achieving anything.
CH> > DB>
CH> > DB> Thanks,
CH> > DB>
CH> > DB> Dermot.
CH> > DB>
CH> > DB>
CH> > DB>
CH> > DB>
CH> > DB>
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CH> --
CH> --
CH> ** Chris Higgins                         e: chris.higgins at horizon.ie
**
CH> ** Technical Business Development        tel: +353-1-6204916
**
CH> ** Horizon Technology Group              fax: +353-1-6204949
**
CH> ** CCSI# 23364
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CH>
CH>





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