Re: Question for the group

[Paul Schmehl <pauls () utdallas edu>]

--On February 12, 2006 4:04:26 PM -0500 TheGesus <thegesus () gmail com> wrote:

> > What I'm looking for is insight on *why* there would be massive, scripted
> > attempts to get access to library proxies all over the world.
>
> Proxies are proxies.  They get scanned.  They get listed.  I doubt if
> libraries are being singled out in any special way, unless they're
> "easy".
Of course I'm aware of this.  Proxies have been scanned and abused for 
years.  But this is different.  The application "ezproxy", which is used by 
quite a few edus, is being specifically targeted, and unless there's some 
way to break out of the "normal" operation, the only thing you get, once 
you're logged in, is access to books, periodicals and databases that have 
research information in them.

That's not exactly your "normal" proxy situation.

> I have done a... ahem... less than casual study of open proxies over
> the last few of years.  There was a dot-edu a couple of years ago with
> some sort of campus-wide Cisco content delivery system that was WIDE
> open.  A port in every dorm, as it were.  Point being, there's a
> little bit of a historical reputation dot-edus have to deal with.

Yeah, sure, and we've had them ourselves - usually when someone sets one up 
with our knowledge and then gets discovered.

I can't stress this enough - this is different.  I guess I should be 
dicussing this on an edu list where folks are more familiar with ezproxy.

Paul Schmehl (pauls () utdallas edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu/
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