IRC and Security

[Paul Martin]

In my orignal post, I describe a sitiuation that we have here at UC, dealing
with hackers, and pirates.  Since that time I have received numerous messages
telling me that I just dont know what IRC is about and IRC is used for 
anything from education to detailing scud attacks in Israel.  I have also
gotten replies telling me that game playing is good because it introduces
people to computers.  I have also received messages from people telling
not to blame the medium for the crime (ie. the phone system for a drug deal
or IRC for hacking)

I wish to make the following point:
I AM NOT TELLING SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS HOW TO RUN THEIR SYSTEMS!
I am only presenting my point of view about how IRC is used.

Now that I have that out of the way I wish to present the following facts:

1) IRC is a meeting place for hackers and pirates.
   If you doubt this statement, logon to IRC and check out the different
   channels.  I was able to meet as many as five individuals willing to
   trade software with me in as little as two minutes.

2) People DO give out their passwords to people they meet on IRC.
   The most visible supporter of IRC was herself guilty at this University
   for giving out her password to more than twenty people.

3) IRC uses a great deal of bandwitdh.
   One of the replies I got back mentioned the as much as 3% of the
   total NSFNET backbone was used by IRC packets last month.

4) 99.9% of the information presented on IRC is used for entertainment.
   Again, if you don't believe this, logon to IRC and see for yourself.

5) Much of the network that IRC runs on is paid for by taxpayers.

6) IRC does not compare with Usenet News, Talk or E-Mail.
   Much of news is dedicated to the spread of knowledge (IE. this group).
   Talk and E-Mail normally used by individuals who know each other.
   Also these mediums are generally used for communication.

I am sure that people will continue to hack and pirate long after IRC is
gone from the earth, however it appears to me from my expeience in using
IRC, that IRC makes the problem worse.  One person mentioned to me that
I was "barking up two trees" because I saw two different problems with
IRC.  This is true.  IRC is both used for entertainment and illegitimate
activites.  But rather than take my word for it, please use IRC for a 
while so you can draw your own conculsions.  I also know that there are
many things worse than IRC on the Internet (like the Internet Crack Exchange,
a pirate BBS on the internet), and I know that there a many worse problems
in the world, however this is a problem which has simple and easy to
implement solution.  I do not have a personal vendeta against IRC.  I
appluade the free flow of information that the Internet is desgined to
be used for.  I just want to see the Internet being used in the fashion
that it was intended to be used.

-- 
+-----------------[Paul Martin @ Engineering College OCC, UC]-----------------+
| Internet: pmartin at uceng.uc.edu        | "Yes I am serious,                  |
| Dumb:     ...uceng!pmartin            |  and don't call me Shirley"         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+