November 2000 - minds-disaster@lists.redbrick.dcu.ie

[Minds-disaster] Ideas
by David Barrett 01 Dec '00

01 Dec '00

Right... to get Minds back up and running myself, Aidan and a sysadmin are going to need to talk to James Cotter/Stephen Brown about getting the thing up and running. I'd prefer Cian to be the sysadmin there; as he has more knowledge of the system then our Committee Sysadmin, Phil Brennan [ this sure ain't any sort of dissing Phil competition though... ]. After James Cotter has finished his official investigation, we can sort it out; depending on his recomendations. As far as I know, he's pro Minds (though obviously not pro mailbomb); as is Stephen Brown... but we will have to convince them that we can do things to stop this happening again... Cian was talking about mail limiting; and Andy suggested a limit of 50 a day, resetable only by a committee member and only by another 50 a day. The only people with unlimited accounts would be the executive committee. Now, need to know people: (who we should put on this list and keep informed): Committee members David Bolger Sinead McDonagh Release information to: Damien Murphy Noel Hogan I'll write that letter up tonight, and post it on here tommorrow. Regard, David Barrett

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Re: [Minds-disaster] Ideas
by David Barrett 30 Nov '00

30 Nov '00

<mindschair(a)eircom.net> wrote: > Now, need to know people: (who we should put on this list and keep informed): > > Committee members > David Bolger > Sinead McDonagh Whoops, I forgot Bart :) Regards, David Barrett

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[Minds-disaster] Digests
by Cian 30 Nov '00

30 Nov '00

Hi there, I noticed that some of the list members were signed up as 'digest' members. This means that you don't get messages as they are sent, but in one rolled-up list digest at the end of each day. Since this is a discussion list, I assumed that you made a mistake during the signup process and have made you normal members. If you still want the digest instead, visit your membership options page and change it back. Those who were signed up for digests probably have missed the last number of mails - check out the archive page for the list http://lists.redbrick.dcu.ie/mailman/private/minds-disaster/ to see what has gone before. Cian -- "there is nothing wrong /* Cian with emulating a man ** I need to sleep. Let me sleep. who has a nice beard" */ while(student);

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[Minds-disaster] Security
by mindschair＠eircom.net 30 Nov '00

30 Nov '00

Anyway we can up security on this mailing list? Like putting a password system on the archives? We hardly want people going into this system, seeing us express opinions at one point, take a snapshot and say this is what we are doing and give out to us; when they could very well be taking it out of context. And this is a discussion list to see what we should do, and it is at the moment only for committee members. (and Dave Bolger of course). And then there is the joining of the list.... I leave it in your more than capable hands, Cian. Regards, David Barrett

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[Minds-disaster] stuff
by andy fatbastard 30 Nov '00

30 Nov '00

Fatboy here, small number of points: 1. Thanks to Aidan and Dave for realising the importance of taking immediate action, and for being able to do that. 2. I don't see the shit hitting the fan as regards MiNDS>. We are not responsible for our users, but it must be made clear that our president was not acting as president when he wrote the script. (tricky technicality) 3. Other than that, it's time to sit back and see what happens, anything at this stage is just speculation. ===== _________________________________________________________________ Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries! _________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/

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Re: [Minds-disaster] The situation
by mindschair＠eircom.net 30 Nov '00

30 Nov '00

>> On receipt of this letter Stephen Brown ordered taken down indefinitely; >> pending an official investigation by the Computer Science department. >This sounds ominous. Remember though, indefinitely means for an uncertain amount of time. Stephen Brown was dissappointed with us more than anything. >> Therefore we have had to take action to protect the society. > Okay. Remember that MiNDS cannot be reasonably held accountable for the actions > of its members, and that we do run quite a tight ship, security-wise. Also, > this happened as a result of something the SU were doing, right? Do we have > any assurance of support from them should things start looking really grim > for us? We can expect a *lot* of support from Sinead McDonagh, who actually feels responsible for the whole thing. Noel Hogan and Bart Busschots in particular really want the society to stay alive. A lot of clubs and socs have a vested interest in our survival.

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[Minds-disaster] How do we stop this
by balor＠another.com 30 Nov '00

30 Nov '00

I want to know, is there any technical way of stopping such stupidity. I don't know how to approach this, but we will need such suggestions for meeetings with SB and so forth. The computer center will definatly want us to impose some user limitations if we are to get running agin. And I for one think we shouldn't disagree with them as we are in a bad situation. There main point will be how do we stop this happening again. What is our answer? PS: Muchos gracios to the redbrick guys for the help Your email address says a lot about you. Express yourself @ another.com http://another.com/jump.jsp?destDesc=another.com/login.jsp?sig=393

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[Minds-disaster] The situation
by mindschair＠eircom.net 30 Nov '00

30 Nov '00

30/11/00 Hi, this is David Barrett; acting chairperson of MiNDS> This is what happened. The Department of Finance sent a letter of official protest to the Computer Center, accusing the user sargon on the Minds system of instigating a Denial of Service attack on the Department itself. This letter was then passed on to both Dr WJ Smyth, President of the NUI; and to the acting head of the department of Computer Science, Mr Stephen Brown. This letter arrived this morning via the HEA. On receipt of this letter Stephen Brown ordered taken down indefinitely; pending an official investigation by the Computer Science department. Therefore we have had to take action to protect the society. We, the committee, in conjunction with the SU's Societies officer Bart Busschots; held an emergency meeting this afternoon at 2pm in the Callan Foyer. At this meeting it was unanimously agreed to initiate impeachment proceedings against the then Chairperson Darragh Sherwin, who originally wrote the script; and to remove access rights from David Bolger [ Sargon ]. At the meeting, Darragh unofficially resigned, and his letter of resignation will be tendered to us as soon as possible. David Bolger is sending letters of apology to James Cotter, Stephen Brown, the Computer Center, Dr Smyth, the HEA network and the Department of Finance... almost certainly to the minister. Darragh is sending letters of apology to James Cotter, Stephen Brown, the Computer Center, and possibly Dr Smyth. The best we can do is hope that the society get our machine back and resume our normal services that we have always offered to our members and other clubs and societies in Maynooth. As Darragh stepped down, I am now the Acting Chairperson and Aidan Delaney has taken over his previous role as Acting Vice Chairperson. I have to write a letter to the Department apologising for our machine being used for this purpose and that this was actually against our own rules as we use the HEA system and we have operate under their regulations. I'll post this letter to the mailing list every day for the next three days to ensure that people who haven't signed up yet will receive this. I will also post it up at this pace if and when we let our members join this newsgroup. An EGM will be set up in the next few days, provisianally for next Wednesday, to discuss what has happened with the members. Regards, David Barrett

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