Security Basics mailing list archives
RE: application for an employment
From: "onowlin" <nowlin.enteract () transitchicago com>
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 14:34:07 -0500
There have been some very interesting discussion going on regarding this topic. Just thought I'd add another extension to this particular analogy. If you use the analogy of a store then you have to also consider the items that are in the backroom and not available for public view/access (stocked items, damaged/defective items, etc.,). These are items not available to the public for various reasons (including safety reasons etc.), so even though they are in the store (on the network) and possibly even visible from the 'public' portion of the store, they are not meant for public access. This could also extend to other areas of the store too, e.g. employee break room, which are public areas for 'certain' people only (a store employee could access it, but not the public) just as a website's registered customers are 'authorized' to view certain portions of a website). If I am a customer I am not authorized to go into the employee break room, or better yet, the security monitoring room, even if their only security turns out to just be a sign saying 'employees only'. Just because it doesn't have 3 deadbolt locks and an armed guard does not mean that I can just walk in because its in the store. Most systems include a warning banner of some sort, the equivalent of a sign, and that legally is a good enough measure to let me know where the public area stops and the priv area begins. So, just like a 'public' store has the rights to declare what areas are actually accessible to the public, a site admin can declare what services the 'public' is authorized to use. Also, I don't recall if the site that was scanned had any types of warning banner, but a port scan would most likely be a violation of the university's policies. Again, just another viewpoint. OAN -----Original Message----- From: ettinger () gmail com on behalf of Anthony Ettinger Sent: Fri 3/31/2006 3:57 PM To: Hans Meier (John Doe) Cc: security-basics () securityfocus com Subject: Re: application for an employment On 3/31/06, Hans Meier (John Doe) <security.department () tele2 ch> wrote:
Matthias Güntert am Montag, 20. März 2006 13.45:Dear listmembers, i am seeking for a new job as a Unix/Linux systemadministrator. There has been an advertisement at a well known university. So I started to prepare my self for the application. While collecting some information about the network, using nmap, dig, etc... I was able to read the whole namespace from the ip range (255.255.0.0) My question is should I use some of the information I have found out to push my application forward? What do you think how a director would react?Hello all, and sorry for my quite bad english (and not being a lawyer, and not being an admin of a university network) This is one of the most interesting discussions I've ever read on this list. It shows, in my opinion, beside other things: [] two main perspectives, a legal, and a technical, which lead to rather different conclusions. [] that (although I'm not sure) it's also a question of "culture"; It seems that in the US culture a port scan is seen as a bigger problem than in Europe. [] that it has an impact on the "public internet usage by the masses" [sorry, don't know better to say] in the future, if the legal or technical perspective triumph. (and since economy and products and property rights tend to get virtual to circumvent the limitation of real resources and to guarantee constant economic growth, and laws are most suitable as a means of power, the former will triumph, I'm sure) I have another analogy try (sorry for that :-) : Putting a box with a public IP on a public net offering public services is like presenting products in a Walmart or an Aldi respectively. I'm neither obliged to know what I'll buy before visiting the store, nor to only buy products that have been advertised. I look at different places, and search, to see what's availabe, and touch. This is all legal. I'm also not obliged to only look for one product, say, a day: I'm allowed to scan what's available with a quick eye scan. If the store does not want to sell a certain product, it does not place it in the store. It may close the store (the ability for others to see what's available) for a certain time. Illegality starts when stealing/destroying a product or entering the store when it's closed. (Most of) the analogies with the doors and windows miss a main point: My house is not a *public* building - and I can't take it completely "offline" like a computer, so the public/private context is completely different. When I was Matthias Günthert, I would present the collected information (in Europe) to demonstrate my skills, although it may be a risk. A better alternative could be to offer a live network examination and repeat the steps already done (without mentioning the preparation and thus appear even more capable ;-) But hey, to minimize risks be mainstream, present certifications, say what they want to hear, don't show any individual profile... Asking an European list would be an idea too... Hans
That brings to mind another idea I was thinking about at lunch...when you walk through the WalMart store, you can see the items in the store and pick up the package, look at it, and put it back down, that is just like doing a port scan and querying what service is running on that port. In my previous analogy, it would be like you getting upset as the owner of the house when someone simply "looked" at your front door from the sidewalk or rang your doorbell. The ethical boundary is reached when someone comes up to ring your doorbell, and then check the lock, but then start picking the lock (exploiting known holes in the service running on that public port). port scans are like people on a busy sidewalk. They will occassionally look in your direction, maybe even ring the doorbell :-) I suspect the analogy could be continued by getting a pitbull or rottwailer in your fenced front yard (lawyers). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- EARN A MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION ASSURANCE - ONLINE The Norwich University program offers unparalleled Infosec management education and the case study affords you unmatched consulting experience. Tailor your education to your own professional goals with degree customizations including Emergency Management, Business Continuity Planning, Computer Emergency Response Teams, and Digital Investigations. http://www.msia.norwich.edu/secfocus --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- EARN A MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION ASSURANCE - ONLINE The Norwich University program offers unparalleled Infosec management education and the case study affords you unmatched consulting experience. Tailor your education to your own professional goals with degree customizations including Emergency Management, Business Continuity Planning, Computer Emergency Response Teams, and Digital Investigations. http://www.msia.norwich.edu/secfocus ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- RE: application for an employment, (continued)
- RE: application for an employment Mike Fetherston (Apr 03)
- RE: application for an employment Craig Wright (Apr 03)
- Re: application for an employment Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Apr 03)
- RE: application for an employment Craig Wright (Apr 03)
- Re: application for an employment Raoul Armfield (Apr 03)
- Re: application for an employment Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Apr 04)
- RE: application for an employment Ramsdell, Scott (Apr 03)
- Re: application for an employment Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Apr 05)
- RE: application for an employment John E. Fleming (Apr 03)
- Re: application for an employment Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Apr 05)
- RE: application for an employment onowlin (Apr 03)
- RE: application for an employment Craddock, Larry (Apr 03)
- RE: application for an employment Craig Wright (Apr 03)
- Re: application for an employment Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Apr 03)
- Re: application for an employment c.s.wright (Apr 04)
- Re: application for an employment Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Apr 04)
- Message not available
- Re: Port scanning/illegalities Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Apr 05)
- RE: Port scanning/illegalities Ramsdell, Scott (Apr 06)
- Re: Port scanning/illegalities Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Apr 06)
- Re: Port scanning/illegalities Jeffrey F. Bloss (Apr 07)
- Re: application for an employment Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Apr 04)