[H-GEN] (AUSCERT#38535) Re: The recient spate of port scans and intrusion attempts. (fwd)

[Martin Pool]

On Mon, Jul 13, 1998 at 06:25:39PM +1000, Andrae Muys wrote:
> > Should we be doing anything?  
> > Is there anyway the various LUG's can help AUSCERT, or any other
> > Authorities? 
> 
> Thanks for your report and your vote of support.
> 
> It it likely that you refer to the recent activity using the 'mscan' tool.
> Unfortunately, this easy-to-use tool brings 'doorknob-rattling' within the 
> grasp of the novice Internet user.

At what point does doorknob-rattling (either in the physical world, or
on the net) become an attempted break-in?  Does it depend on intent to
break in, or is it based on some kind of generally accepted conduct?

The classic example, I suppose, is fingering a machine: on the one
hand, it's a public service, but on the other it may be a prelude to
an attack and people would always find a finger from an address
they've never heard of at least interesting.

-- 
Martin Pool
PGP encrypted email preferred.
fingerprint: 7F2D 9E59 589F 8A03 FAAE  3815 1E08 E06A 5D97 7ED0
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