[32976] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Port scanning legal
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Todd Suiter)
Tue Dec 19 19:51:50 2000
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 16:49:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Todd Suiter <todd@s4r.com>
To: mdevney@teamsphere.com
Cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0012191622200.31804-100000@core.teamplay.net>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.21.0012191645490.15179-100000@sashimi.space4rent.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
Walking down the street and checking for open doors and windows
is called "attempted breaking and entering." I personally block
anyone who comes knocking on my ports, I'm not running anything
that anyone would be interested in, and there is no reason for
them to be, as you say, knocking. If I want someone to come knocking,
I'll ask them to, or give them an account.
t
On Tue, 19 Dec 2000 mdevney@teamsphere.com wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, 19 Dec 2000 Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
>
> >
> > 3) Let's not forget that a *scan* only actually impairs the integrity
> > of a network that hasn't been secured against scanning. You'll never
> > have somebody walk up to you and say "Hey, your front door is unlocked"
> > if you always lock your front door.
> >
> I do not understand why people get so uppity about a scan. Let's be real
> here, a simple portscan is about equivalent to walking along a sidewalk
> and checking out the houses for open windows and doors. And about as
> harmful.
>
> What is harmful is what sometimes comes after that. (Not always; not
> usually; not even half the time I'd bet.) But the only damage a portscan
> does is a few packets over your network and maybe 4M of logs (depending on
> how you're logging). When writing and enforcing laws, it's important to
> punish what's harmful, not what may be harmful. Or else looking at houses
> as you walk down the street may be illegal.
>
> Matthew Devney
> System Administrator
> Teamsphere Interactive
>
>
>
