Death Threat Woes

[James Cayz]

All,

	On one hand, many states (including my own, DE), have laws
regarding the confidentiality of our patrons.  We have had this tested,
and the identity of a perpetrator was NOT revealed, even though it was a
very similar set of circumstances.

	HOWEVER, "not revealing" or "keeping it confidential", is NOT the
same as not knowing and being able to do something about it.

	It goes a LONG, LONG, LONG way to be able to tell the offended
(perhaps for the first time) party, that _you_ will contact the person and
ask them to "cease and desist".  Remember, "confidential" is not the same
as "anonymous".

	And, if you can go one step further, once the perpetrator does NOT
cease and desist, to "cut them off", you can really be called a
responsible ISP.

	If your system doesn't allow you to identify the perpetrator, even
over a series of attacks, I wouldn't be surprised if the remote host
simply starts blocking ALL packets from your site (ie, everyone loses).

	(In case you are wondering, I would suggest that you start, right
now, scanning and storing those barcodes into a spreadsheet only
accessible to library staff).

	Just food for thought.

	James Cayz 

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[ James Cayz # cayz at lib.de.us # Del-AWARE homepage: http://www.lib.de.us   ]
[ Network Processing Administrator #  302-739-4748 x130 # Fax 302-739-6948 ]
[ Delaware Division of Libraries # 43 S. DuPont Hwy / Dover, DE 19901-7430 ]
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>On Sat, 25 Oct 1997, Michael Dargan wrote:
>> Yesterday morning my ISP informed me that someone using one my library's 
>> computers used a form on the Whitehouse website to transmit a death 
>> threat to the President.  It appears that we're likely to soon hear from 
>> a Secret Service agent who may or may not have some sharp questions for 
>> us.  
>> 
>> Currently we do not authenticate use of our public Internet 
>> workstations.  A patron who wishes to use a machine is simply assigned a 
>> machine by a librarian.  If we're busy, the librarian asks for a name 
>> which is then written on a waiting list.  There's no way for us to tell 
>> who used a particular machine three weeks ago at 10:35 a.m.
>> 
>> How obligated are libraries to keep records of Internet workstation use?  
>> Should we be scanning library cards into a spreadsheet and keeping track 
>> of times and specific PCs?  How long should such records be kept?  Who's 
>> entitled to see them?  
>> 
>> ---
>> Michael J. Dargan                               office: 319 291 4496
>> Technical Systems Administrator                    fax: 319 291 6736
>> Waterloo and Cedar Falls Public Libraries         Waterloo, IA 50701