Re: chat logs

[Stian Øvrevåge <sovrevage () gmail com>]

First of all; I'm not a security professional, I'm not a parent, I'm
not an American resident, I'm not really into politics and I'm far
from fluent in English, so bare with me on this...

In reply to those answering with the theoretical possibilities of
deploying IDS/IPS etc. for chat-monitoring; The most important thing
is that it has to be doable by the average parent. I don't know how
things work over here, but most parents here wouldn't know the
difference between ( or even what the acronyms mean ) AIM, MSN and
IRC, and would not be comfortable with much more than viewing the
Internet Explorer history.

In reply to those stating how easy it is to erase such tracks; Sure it
is, but lets draw a paralell to computer security; did it exist a
patch for the hole that Blaster exploited?
Even though it is possible ( and fairly easy ) to delete, or even fake
logs and history; Are you dealing with Kevin Mitnick, or the average
and curious teenager doing some exploration in the comfort of his own
home?

In reply to those stating that these rebelling children have no right
to privacy whatsoever based on the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt of a
few incidents:
I value my privacy, and I consider it a great part of the whole idea
of freedom. I would risk alot to preserve my privacy. I would accept a
risk of 10000000/1 with privacy, rather than have my most inner
thoughts and feelings posted on a billboard for a slight reduction in
risk.

As I stated before, I'm not an American resident, and may well be
walking on thin ice; How many people are killed and injured in traffic
accidents every year? Over 40,000 [1].
It also seems as the primary argument of outlawing privacy is based on
the safety of your children ( and community ), a paper [2] however,
states that "Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for
children from 2 to 14 years old." I would now like to hear, one again,
the drivers of motor vehicles outlaw privacy of children based on "the
high risk" of "major catastrophe". I would bet that quite a few of you
value the possiblity to move and travel with help of cars and public
transportation, in spite of the very real and documented risks
associated with such activities. [a]

At first eyesight, this seems like a prank that went a bit to far, I
don't believe that the poor kid ( who is possibly just claiming some
attention? ) had intentions of killing himself and/or other
students/teachers by blowing up a bomb in the school.


As for a solution to your answer:
Have you thought about using other methods of gaining the information
in question? It seems as there is alot of will and some money behind
this, how about using an insider? I'm sure there are quite a few of
those kids who are willing to blow the whistle on a
fellow-bomb-threatening student? One could also lend something from
the social engineering field, is it possible that the students who are
subject to such persuasion are more akin to love and recognition than
threats and "criminalization"?


[a] One could also argue why this is the case, my thoughts on this is
that the media is largely to blame; as the saying goes "if it bleeds,
it leads". This is something Bruce Schneier commented on regarding
terrorism about a week ago [3]. To quote the original article
published in the New York Times:
"I'm not advocating official censorship, but there's no reason the
news media can't reconsider their own fondness for covering suicide
bombings. A little restraint would give the public a more realistic
view of the world's dangers."

[1] - http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/ - Fatality Analysis Reporting System
[2] - http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSF2003/809762.pdf
- Traffic Safety Facts 2003 - Children
[3] - http://www.schneier.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/241 - Should
Terrorism be Reported in the News?

These views are not carved in stone, and is not an attempt to state
some universal truth, it is merely an attempt to counter-weight some
of the previous posts and possibly stimulate even more constructive
discussion and criticism.

Regards, Stian ;-)