IRC and Security

[Hannu Napari]

In article <7763 at uceng.UC.EDU> pmartin at uceng.UC.EDU (Paul Martin) writes:
>1) IRC is a meeting place for hackers and pirates.
>   If you doubt this statement, logon to IRC and check out the different
>   channels.  I was able to meet as many as five individuals willing to
>   trade software with me in as little as two minutes.

I wonder how many you could have met using talk. Again, this is
the fault of the people, not of the irc software.

>2) People DO give out their passwords to people they meet on IRC.
>   The most visible supporter of IRC was herself guilty at this University
>   for giving out her password to more than twenty people.

So what? I could spread my password using "conventional" means.
And once again, this is the fault of the people, not of the
software. Following your logic one should forbid everything.

>3) IRC uses a great deal of bandwitdh.
>   One of the replies I got back mentioned the as much as 3% of the
>   total NSFNET backbone was used by IRC packets last month.

The byte count of IRC-packets was 1.4% of the total. Most of the band-
width is taken by ftp-packets. I don't see you denying ftp-access.
Imagine how many illegal copies of commercial software is being
transferred right now...

>6) IRC does not compare with Usenet News, Talk or E-Mail.
>   Much of news is dedicated to the spread of knowledge (IE. this group).
>   Talk and E-Mail normally used by individuals who know each other.
>   Also these mediums are generally used for communication.

So we don't communicate when we're using IRC... Interesting fact.
And what is wrong in meeting other people, some of which are complete
strangers to oneself. It seems to me that you consider this somewhat
abnormal...

>But rather than take my word for it, please use IRC for a 
>while so you can draw your own conculsions.  I also know that there are
>many things worse than IRC on the Internet (like the Internet Crack Exchange,
>a pirate BBS on the internet), and I know that there a many worse problems
>in the world, however this is a problem which has simple and easy to
>implement solution.

I've used IRC since the very beginning. And I have drawn my conclusions
about your "facts"...

>I appluade the free flow of information that the Internet is desgined to
>be used for.  I just want to see the Internet being used in the fashion
>that it was intended to be used.

Free flow of information? Your ideas are far from that...

Internet is not a static and stable thing, it evolves all the time.

--
Napo    $ Today I am / a small blue thing / Made of china / made of glass
(leon)  $ I am cool and smooth and curious / I never blink / I am turning
        $ in your hand / Turning in your hand / small blue thing
        $