Re: Just the facts, ma'am.

> Date: Wed, 26 May 93 09:14:50 EDT 
> From: jthomas@kolanut.mitre.org (Joe Thomas) 
> Subject: Re: Just the facts, ma'am. 
> 
> 
> > Thank you for your insights. I will ask UUNet, but I'm beginning to 
> > wonder if other local comm providers practice the same deceptions. 
> > Does anyone have any experiences with digex.com that they would like 
> > to share? 
> 
> Nothing but good ones.  Doug Humphrey <doug@access.digex.net> even 
> posted to  the list a few times as I recall.  I'm still not sure I see 
> a problem with  someone providing a newsfeed to the NSA, FBI, or anyone 
> else, though.  
> 

As one of the former tech-weenies at Express Access, and now just a friend 
with no formal association to the business, I feel compelled to give you my 
thoughts on that particular service provider. 

Rarely will you find a system administration staff more concerned with your 
privacy that the guys at Digital Express Group. As I recall, the set of 
username->real name mappings isn't even on machine readable media on the 
system. When I was working with them, we had a big book, and people only 
accessed the book when absolutely necessary, for instance to inform a user of 
a file system problem or the like. 

In fact, on several instances, I would ask other staff people who a 
particular username belonged to when I had a need to contact them - more 
often than not, they/we couldn't remember, and I had to look it up anyway. 
This was by design. 

From day one, there was a policy of not disclosing customer information to 
ANYONE without a warrant. To date, thankfully, I don't think that it's been 
put to the test, though I have no doubts as to the grief they'll give those 
trying to get the information. 

The original machine room was one of the best jobs of low-cost RFI/EMI 
shielding construction I've ever seen. (BTW, the foam insulation with foil on 
both sides is a boon to mankind.) It wasn't really intended to keep people 
from looking at the emissions as to keep the emissions from wiping out all 
the shortwave receivers in use, but hey, every little bit helps.

I'm still a user there, and I have a hell of a lot of respect for that crew. 
I would also implicitly trust them as a site for anonymous remailing, key 
certification, or the like. I hope that becomes a part of their business 
focus in the future, because we need service providers who won't be 
intimidated. 

--Strat

On the cypherpunks mailing list, Strat wrote...
 > Rarely will you find a system administration staff more concerned with
 > your privacy that the guys at Digital Express Group. As I recall, the
 > set of username->real name mappings isn't even on machine readable media
 > on the system.

Really?  That's odd, especially for a unix box, which access.digex.com
seems to be.  And, as a matter of fact, it does seem to show "Robert
Stratton" for the username of "strat".  So, it seems they do maintain
username to "real name" mappings (even if they allow the user to change
the "real name" listed.

 > When I was working with them, we had a big book, and people only
 > accessed the book when absolutely necessary, for instance to inform a
 > user of a file system problem or the like.
...
 > This was by design. 

As a side note, this sounds like a bad design.. keeping things on paper
for a computer system.  Perhaps, a disconnected computer system.. but,
when you start talking a few thousand users, the paper begins to really
become troublesome for maintaining information on accounts. ;-)

FYI...

			-jeff

Jeff Kellem
Internet: composer@Beyond.Dreams.ORG