[iwar] [fc:Is.your.computer.inviting.voyeurs?.Embarrassing,.private.text.files.find.their.way.onto.the.Net]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-01-16 12:08:10
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Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 12:08:10 -0800 (PST)
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Is your computer inviting voyeurs? Embarrassing, private text files find their way onto the Net 
By Bob Sullivan, MSNBC, 1/15/2002
<a href="http://www.msnbc.com/news/686184.asp">http://www.msnbc.com/news/686184.asp>

Jan. 14 - There it was, just sitting out there on the Internet, for all
to see. "The keys to the condo are located in a lock box mounted on the
wall outside the entry door. The combination is 0-8-3-6." The recipient
of the instructions, Catalina, is only weeks away from a long-awaited
vacation at a ski resort, but she had no idea that her computer was
telling the world where she was going, when she would be there, and how
to break into her rental condo until MSNBC.com contacted her.

WHEN YOU LEAVE for vacation, you certainly don't want the world to know
when and where you are going. But that's one of the unintended
consequences of file-sharing programs with names like Gnotella and
BearShare.  The programs are essentially software front-ends to a
file-sharing system known as Gnutella - it's not quite heir to the
Napster throne, but a place where plenty of free, illegal music swapping
still goes on. But music isn't the only thing being shared. Videos,
audio files, even text documents and spreadsheets can be swapped - and
often are, by accident. It's akin to taking the Microsoft Windows "My
Documents" folder and placing it out on the Internet for all to see.
Monte Phillips, retired hobbyist and former Air Force radar technician,
has made himself into a one-man posse who hunts down such recklessly
broadcast information and warns potential victims. He passed Catalina's
condo reservation confirmation letter to MSNBC.com.

But Phillips has seen much worse in his surfing. He regularly spots
personal letters and memos, files containing various usernames and
passwords, Word documents containing bank account numbers with PIN
numbers. Once he learned about intense negotiations taking place between
a small Canadian firm and a major U.S. energy company.  Compromised
business documents can't compare to the government information he says
he's spotted, however. Among them, over 200 case files and private
correspondence from a Texas district attorney's office, files from a
computer at an Army base in Korea, even background check files generated
soon after Sept. 11 on a person of Arab descent living in the United
States from what appeared to be an federal investigator's computer.
"Everyone worries about sophisticated hackers, but people don't realize
that the threat is themselves," Phillips said. "They haven't got a clue
about the technology they are using, and don't stop and think what it is
they are leaving about."  Monte Phillips has found all kinds of
embarassing and revealing documents using file swapping service
Gnotella. Often, Phillips will find a phone number attached to the
documents he finds, so he calls up the "victim." He's not completely
comfortable digging through the information but figures it's the
equivalent of opening a wallet to find out whom to return it to. After
the initial shock, most victims thank him for his efforts. Why is he
spending so many of his retired hours telling Internet users to cover up
their naked computer files? "Oh, it's probably a character defect," he
laughed. "I was born and raised on a farm in Nebraska - if the
neighbor's bull gets out, you just get him back inside their fence, and
let the neighbor know. I haven't got any halos." 
HOW DOES IT HAPPEN? Catalina's real name and other details of her trip
are being withheld to protect her family; but she was shocked to find
files from her computer had been accessed from a file-sharing network.
"Unbelievable," she said. 
Initially, she had no idea how it happened, but after a few questions
remembered that her 10-year-old son uses a music-swapping program named
"BearShare."  "I will certainly take measures to stop this," she said.
Catalina's situation is typical - children often sign up their home
computers for services that parents don't quite understand. Suddenly,
the family's financial spreadsheets can be found using a simple search
like "accounts" in a file swapping service. But children don't account
for files from a district attorney's office making their way onto the
Net. Also typical is when one person in the office signs up for a
service, not understanding how it can expose critical company files also
on that computer. 
Use of the  programs, which are  generally considered a  serious
security risk by  experts, seems to be  somewhat common  among U.S.
government  offices. A quick scan by  MSNBC.com found  hundreds of
megabytes  of music - including  about 50 Beatles songs,  50 Jim Croce
songs, and perhaps 100 John Williams compositions, among many others -
shared out from a computer operated by a Naval Hospital called the
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Beaufort, South Carolina. That irks
Phillips. "None of these programs belong on business or government
computers, period," he said. "There is no ethical justification for it."
Attempts to reach the technicians at the Naval Hospital weren't
immediately successful.

USERS TO BLAME Shaun Sidwall, the software developer who created
Gnotella, said he sympathized with users who accidentally place personal
items before the public. But ultimately, the user - and not his software
- is to blame. 
"You know (accidents) happen... It is surprising to see every once in
while what people share," he said. But he argues that outside the
occasional embarrassing realization, he doesn't think many users have
actually been victimized accidentally shared files. "Most users of the
network aren't searching for that kind of stuff. So chances are very few
people have actually been maliciously affected by this," he said. Sidwell designed 
the software to generally only share out files placed
in a specific, safe folder on a user's computer. But inexperienced users
are apparently making much wider swaths of their personal files
available to the network - in some cases, sharing their entire hard
drives, for example. Because there might be a legitimate reason to do
that, Sidwell resisted the notion of limiting Gnotella so it couldn't
make all files on a computer available. Those using file-sharing
programs - or allowing their kids to do so - should be very careful
about exactly what files and directories are open to the world. If
there's any confusion, the safest way to protect yourself is to use a
separate hard drive. Or deploy an even more aggressive tactic, like
Phillips. "My personal solution is to have a separate machine entirely
for this," he said. "And if there's any files on your computer you don't
want the world to, store them on a zip disk or floppy, and take them out
of the computer."

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