Re: @Home Nederland - port scans are OK

[Edwin ten Brink <edwin () CAM061311 STUDENT UTWENTE NL>]

At 18:03 4-10-2000, you wrote:
> Somebody at nl.home.com probed my FTP port, right after the
> recent wu-ftpd exploit was announced on Bugtraq.  I sent off
> a report to abuse () home nl.  Their reply includes the following
> statements:
>
>         Actions of @Home customers are considered to be abuse
>         if they are in breach of our current AUP.  A copy of our
>         AUP can be read at
>                 http://www.home.nl/product/voorwaarden3.html
>         ...
>         ...
>         * Portscanning is not a violation of our AUP.
>
> This policy would explain why crackers would want to use
> nl.home.com for portscanning.
>
> I could not access the AUP URL; maybe it's inaccessible outside
> of their networks.

No, it is located at:
http://www.home.nl/service/voorwaarden3.html
(Sorry, it's in Dutch)

Relevant portion is:
Illegale activiteiten
Het gebruik van de Service in strijd met de wet is uiteraard niet
toegestaan. Ongeoorloofd gedrag omvat onder meer:
- het plaatsen of verspreiden van illegaal materiaal (bijv. kinderporno);
- inbreuk plegen op auteursrechtelijk beschermde werken of het anderszins
handelen in strijd met de intellectuele eigendomsrechten van derden;
- het ontplooien van frauduleuze activiteiten;
- het intimideren van andere gebruikers van de Service of Internet of
anderszins onrechtmatig handelen jegens andere gebruikers, de Leverancier
of @Home Benelux B.V.

Quick summary translation:

Illegal activities
Using the Service in activities against the law is of course prohibited.
Illegal activities are among others:
- placement or spreading of illegal material (e.g. child porn)
- encroach upon copyrighted works or otherwise conduct activities against
the intellectual property of third parties
- unfolding any fraudulous activity
- intimidating of other user of the Service, or Internet or any other
unlawful activities against other users, the Supplier or @Home Benelux Ltd.

Questions about their AUP can be directed to support () corp nl home com

I was unable to locate the text you quoted. I like to state however that
@Home users aren't that much of the crackers you like to think. @Home is an
ISP where users can get acces via modem, or via DSL. The latter isn't
available with much providers in The Netherlands, hence @Home is extremely
popular in The Netherlands.

There may be some people who scan ports (and I'm not even _thinking_ about
opening the discussion whether this is or is not a hostile activity), but I
personally see lots of portscan here from users from the USA, Phillipines,
Korea and Japan. Occasionaly I see a portscan from @Home.

I understand people have a deep fear of Dutch hackers
(http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/09/29/0231248&mode=thread), but most
of their users are just fanatic websurfers.

Just keep your box secure...

Regards,

Edwin