EU Official: IP Is Personal

J. Oquendo sil at infiltrated.net
Thu Jan 24 13:43:43 UTC 2008


Rod Beck wrote:

> I am frankly shocked that some people claim that you cannot identify 
> people by the IP address. There was a scandal in the States where a well 
> known ISP released search records and the New York Times was able to 
> identify individuals using the IP address together with the search records.

And here is a shocker... Supposing I despised you enough to do something 
horrendous to your reputation. I despised you enough to perhaps surf 
around your neighborhood for an open wifi connection, if I connect to 
what I believe is yours even the better.

Since I despise you so much, I begin say, spreading viruses, spreading 
malware, attempting to break into banks, maybe chatting with minors. 
Remember now, I am in close proximity to your home, who knows maybe I 
was lucky enough to stumble upon your wireless connection. Should I go 
on with this?

> I see no difference between a static IP address and a credit card 
> number. Neither are the individual's property, but that doesn't mean 
> there should not be legal or ethical obligations surrounding them. 

There is a humongous difference. There is nothing more then a broad 
assumption that you are the individual sitting behind your IP address. 
There can only be proof if its shown that it was impossible for someone 
to have connected via your home address. Wireless router throws 
everything out the door unless you're using WPA, WEP which even then 
there is the possibility of someone still breaking into your connection.

RADIUS accounting for say PPP? Oh... You'd like to verify my identity 
via caller ID? Caller ID spoofing defeats this too. So what's next? I'll 
respond offline, lest I get flamed, banned, shown the AUP again and have 
my fingers hit with a ruler... (sorry Alex, Martin)


-- 
====================================================
J. Oquendo

SGFA #579 (FW+VPN v4.1)
SGFE #574 (FW+VPN v4.1)

wget -qO - www.infiltrated.net/sig|perl

http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xF684C42E

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