adviCe on network security report

Fri Nov 3 19:36:41 UTC 2006

On Thu, 2 Nov 2006, Robert Boyle wrote:
> someone who can help. I wish abuse was used as intended instead of my every 
> idiot programmer and script writer for their own "helpful" stuff we never 
> asked for nor does it help us at all nor does it help the users.

Unfortunately that is a problem with every public reporting channel.  Most
9-1-1 (or your national equivalent) centers report a majority of their 
calls are non-emergencies.  In many cities the police will not respond
to automatic dialers calling 9-1-1 because of the extremely high false 
reporting rate, or put them at a very low, low response priority.  Most
of the complaints the FCC gets about television and radio programming are
from people who have never seen or heard the program they are complaining
about.

ISP abuse desks, US congressional offices, etc have all implemented things
which make contacting them by e-mail harder due to the automatic-idiot
problems.  There are effective ways to contact your congressional office 
or ISP abuse desk, and ineffective ways.  When they give suggestions about
the best way to contact them, its a good idea to listen to what they
recommend if you want to be effective.

If you just want to complain about ISPs not responding, or the police not
finding your stolen car, or 9-1-1 operators refusing calls from your 
automatic alarm system; you are welcome to continue complaining.  It 
probably won't be that effective, but if it makes you feel better go 
ahead.

On the other hand, if you are interested in accomplishing something then
there are different actions you can take.