schlick@reed.UUCP (Gary G Schlickeiser) (07/08/85)
On May 28 somebody gained access to the newton login on the Reed
College main academic computer and posted a modified copy of the beta
test version of VersaTerm that Lonnie Abelbeck posted to the network
several months ago. This was done without the knowledge and/or consent
of the owner of this login. Shortly after this posting we eliminated
direct posting of news from Reed to the net for two reasons; we wanted
to prevent additional postings if the initial posting was malicious and
we needed time to evaluate what had happened and how to change our news
policies to minimize the possibility of future postings while allowing
easy access to news. We finally decided on the following:
1. Inews has been modified to search a file of unauthorized news logins
before posting an article, initially all logins will be in this file.
If a user wants to be able to post news s/he will need to go to the
computer center where s/he will receive a handout detailing the
responsibilities of a news poster. Her/his login name will then be
removed from the file.
2. Users will be allowed only one account with news access. There will
be no news access for visitor and multiuser accounts.
3. Software is in place to check for trivial passwords to help prevent
individuals from gaining access through password guessing.
Hopefully this will be enough to stop any additional postings. Again
we would like to apologize to the net for the initial posting of
copyrighted material.
Gary Schlickeiser
Director of Academic Computing Services
Reed College
tektronix!reed!schlick