Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 15:30:37 -0600 From: joed@ksu.edu (Joe Diehl) To: Steve.Howe@ice-bbs.net, hmmm@ice-bbs.net Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: un-ethical isp Message-ID: <Mutt.19970216153037.joed@marvin.ksu.edu> In-Reply-To: <293_9702030127@ice-bbs.net>; from Steve Howe on Feb 3, 1997 01:26:43 -0900 References: <293_9702030127@ice-bbs.net>
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Steve Howe writes:
>
> Dear FreeBSDers,
>
> because of your excellent OS and superb knowledge, i/we decided to use
> FreeBSD in projects for the government subcontracting starting about 2
> years ago.
Woot, glad to hear it... 8-)
*** Disclaimer-- I am not offering any legal advice, simply a couple of
*** pointers. I am not an attourny, nor do I claim any real knowledge
*** about legal issues. You should discuss these matters with an
*** attourny. This information is present as is, without any warranty
*** (express or implied). I take no liability for any damages incurred
*** from the use of this information.
Okie had to get that out of my system ;)
> an associate and boss became upset due to their fear of
> UNIX and a sort of conspiracy developed ...
>
> anyway - unbeknownst to me, the owners of my isp (alaska.net) were former
> associates this vengeful/ignorant co-worker and boss, and together
> (as i came close to finishing a project way ahead of their NT
> project) they (isp) engaged in ping flooding all my machines
> on my networks, grinding all my work to a complete halt for
> a week, and additionally, after tracing the source of the
> pinging and sending some nasty email, my isp transferred
> all my email i had ever written on my personal/private
> account to my boss and co-worker for review, ie, they
> were looking for some goodies to get rid of me.
> they hired private investigators, etc. but i
> was squeaky clean, although things have
> become miserable enough to quit. :)
>
> ANYWAY - my question is, although my lawyer says my isp may be
> liable for slander, is there any other recourse i can take for
> them giving 2 1/2 years of my email from my personal/private
> account to my boss and co-workers? i wouldn't want laws,
> but i despise un-ethical behavior such as this!
>
> it included health information related to my family,
> love letters :), thoughts, etc. all kinds of stuff
> you'd never want anyone to see!
(1) For ping flooding you which caused your production work to stop
I'd look into laws dealing with denial of service attacks.. I've
heard that a denial of service attack is a felony under federal
law. Note that I have yet to actually read a bill, nor do I have a
reference.
At the very least I'm sure the is grounds for a hefty civil suit
for damages incurred for the downtime. If you lose this bid you
*may* also be able to recover lost revenue from alaska.net and/or
this other person.
(2) They're forwarding your *private* email, this is illegal under
the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986:
Section 2701 reads, in part, "whoever-- ... (2) intentionally exceeds an
authorization to access that facility; and thereby obtains, ...
access to ... electronic communication while it is in electronic
storage in such system" shall be subject to fines and/or imprisonment.
-- http://www.leepfrog.com/E-Law/E-Law/Part_VIII.html
Sources for further information:
o CERT (www.cert.org)
o Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org)
o http://www.leepfrog.com/E-Law/E-Law/Contents.html
I would also notify CERT first, and then with their help (if you can get it)
approach alaska.net and alaska.net's upstream provider(s)... I'd personally
be trying to get alaska.net blocked at some routers, and/or blackholed.
You also may wish to contact the Better Business Burrow or some such
organization... I as a consumer would want to know if my ISP just mailed
2.5 years worth of private email to someone's boss. Just be careful that
you don't get slapped with a law suit (I'm not up on these legal issues).
> (pgp? - well not everyone i wrote to can use it!)
Teach them the secure side of the force ;)
> thanks ... please mail to hmmm@ice-bbs.net.
> a friend/co-worker is allowing me use of this
> account as i have no isp currently ...
Woot, what a nice friend.. Buy him/her a beer or sumptin. :)
---
Joe Diehl <joed@ksu.edu>
PGP Key: finger joed@unix.ksu.edu
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