Session Start: Sun Jul 21 21:39:27 2002 - 21:40:42 - OK the channel will be moderated while i run thru the basics of safe ircing there will be a QA session afterwards of course First, I want to welcome and thank you all for coming to this evenings session on "Safe Irc'ing". For experieanced users this should be a useful refresher class, and for those new to chat it will give a new awareness about security and safety! Please refrain from nick changes during the lesson and try to keep parts and joins to a minimum. Some things here are prefaced with

and came from professional police officers currentl active or retired. This is a true story presented at an earlier session:

Several months ago our department was called to a residence about computer problems.

When the officers got there we found that a young lady had been corrisponding with someone via IRC

Because of information this person obtained from IRC about the woman he found out where she was in college at and paid her a very unwanted visit

...thank GOD someone else was near by but her parents were very scared.

the girl was attacked at her school by the person she believes she met on IRC

She basis her accusations on notes left on her car calls to her dorm and to her parents home.

The mistake she made was telling someone she did not really know very well...who she was

And gave this NUT way to much personal information. We are not trying to scare anyone but this stuff does happen. We urge each of you to be careful how much personal information you give someone. Many times we give information in our WHOIS that for a computer wiz is very telling information Some of you put real names and email addresses in quit msg or in your whois for anyone to see. It is very easy to find out information about someone via email, IRC or any of the other internet sources... for one example just type /whois nick that top line often gives away information And for the most part, unless deliberately spoofed... you cant really hide it. Now on big ISPs like ATT,or AOL or others its not quite as telling.. but the whois tells you some information .. like *.dc.dial-access.att.net for Washington DC Now, thats not very useful .. until you tell them you live 'near the school or 'near the bridge' .. or that your dad's name is Tom. Now I have enough to start searching email listings by region, by isp. If you ever give anyone your zip code (all 9 digits) .. they can generate a map with directions right to your house This is the simplest type of information to gather We tell everyone, PLEASE treat a conversation on IRC like a telephone conversation with a stranger..... Im sure you were taught what not to tell people....and it applies here as well.. if you KNOW them, personally, thats different On the brighter side, we have more than once actually used this type of information to locate someone who has threatened to harm themselves .. and it works. Also its VERY important in the whois info you set in your chat client. Do NOT use your login id for your isp, or your mail account, or anything even close to your real name Every bit of information lets a stalker or lamer narrow down who you might be or where you live Now, thats how easy it is to piece together some bits of information just on IRC ... Here are some of the things an investigator can do with that type of information from a retired police Detective. or even a spammer

To rehash a little. Personal information in a whois or given in a channel or to someone you really do not know is dangerous.

If I have your real name, I can find out where you live, your drivers license information, who and how many people live at your address, who your neighbors are and so on

There are several information services that supply this information and they are readily accessable to those who know how to use them.

We are all here to have fun, but we can not overemphasize the importance of keeping personal information to yourself.

There are programs available to anyone on the internet that can give much of the information I stated above.

We are hearing more and more stories from Law Enforcement like what happened in Chief's town.

And, not just in big cities, this is from even small communities.

The bottom line on this is, BE AWARE of what your are saying in IRC. Think, just as has been said.... Treat IRC just like a telephone call with a stranger. Now, before everybody gets totally paranoid, logs off and burns their modems ...IRC is no more or less safe than a 'walk in the park'...Just remember to treat strangers AS strangers. In small communities, by the way.. a little bit of information goes a LONG way locating someone If you think someone is getting to forward, break off contact. If they contact you off the internet and you have not asked them to ..call the police. Let them know about this before it becomes more serious If someone is harassing you on the net here, talk to one of the ops in #channels or #terranova PLEASE let us know. To parents .. PLEASE watch your kids on the internet ...it is so so very easy to have a kid doing homework and end up on web sites that you would never believe. They don't all have sex names Example -- www.whitehouse.com (DONT GO THERE !!!) That is NOT whitehouse.gov :) I would like to mention though, if folks make threatening or 'scary' remarks...theres no 'magic' on the net There are many sources, but some use that to just scare people If you are concerned, ask someone who knows To report abuse on the net .. did you know that our own CStar has instructions? Type /msg cstar help and you will get a short list of the things to do in case of any sort of abuse and that ends the direct presentation we dont mean to scare anyone but just remind you that IRC is as safe .. and unsafe.. as a phone call thank you, Itsy, can I add one thing that I have just learned... the hard way? no more or less sure on msn when you search for a community, used to be if it was an adult site, it would warn you... now, it does not For those that arrived late and missed some of the information, Itsy will prolly put the text up on the web site you go directly to that community this is not good for our children to do they should be on slirc not msn LOL bravo dev! thats a good tip LindyM...thanks! welcome by the way .. another technique used (was mentioned here by someone present) .. is social engineering.. if your isp can be located, people can call up and pretend to be famliy member or such and get information. I believe that parents have to be sure what their kids are doing online at all times LindyM i wonder if a setting on your acount has been changed accidentally no, CharlesR, I am not on msn bythe way .. credit to chiefy and Lt_Ed they are the police officers i referred to Itsy, in regards to the 9 digit zip code, that tells anyone on what block in the city you live thanks, chiefy and Lt_Ed BTW..do not think that those who work for your isp are safe to chat with either..one of our ladies was stalked by a tech support person and is doing 6 yrs jail time now * tricia applauds chiefy and Lt_Ed actually it gives them the exact house if they get enoughmail * Itsy has his own zip code true if you go to a search site for addresses, you can print out a map with an arrow to a person's home Session Close: Sun Jul 21 22:01:10 2002