Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs • Hacker News Board

Re: Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs

#11

Post by FourthProtocol » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 1:25 PM UTC

joelthelion wrote: post #7

jpswade wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. "Another is that traffic is encrypted. Many educational establishments will have some capability for filtering traffic to malicious URLs as it flows through their network. That’s easy with unencrypted traffic. If the site uses SSL, then you have to do some kind of SSL interception."

Network Admins need to learn that looking at what your users do and meddling with his data is not a legitimate activity. They should have learned that long ago. Fortunately, with encryption becoming more widespread, they will have to learn the lesson.

If it's your network, and you graciously allow me to use it, and I, through my use of your network breach the security of systems on your network, would you not do anything in the interests of not meddling with my data?

Re: Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs

#12

Post by anonymouz » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 1:25 PM UTC

joelthelion wrote: post #7

jpswade wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. "Another is that traffic is encrypted. Many educational establishments will have some capability for filtering traffic to malicious URLs as it flows through their network. That’s easy with unencrypted traffic. If the site uses SSL, then you have to do some kind of SSL interception."

Network Admins need to learn that looking at what your users do and meddling with his data is not a legitimate activity. They should have learned that long ago. Fortunately, with encryption becoming more widespread, they will have to learn the lesson.

The quote continued:

"That’s easy with unencrypted traffic. If the site uses SSL, then you have to do some kind of SSL interception. Straightforward on a corporate network full of tightly-managed systems. Much harder on a network full of student machines, visitor laptops and the like, and in our opinion, something to be avoided."

Obviously, they do not see intercepting traffic as desirable. But who has time to read the article before commenting these days...?

Re: Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs

#13

Post by blisterpeanuts » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 1:27 PM UTC

Summary of the blog posting: Google Docs forms are being used in phishing attacks against stupid users. We closed down Google Docs. It didn't work and we had to open it up again after 2.5 hours.

Unfortunately, there's no easy solutions to so-called phishing attacks other than educating users. I would recommend that the IT dept. dedicate its considerable resources and creativity to that end, and try to minimize use of the shotgun approach in the future!

Re: Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs

#14

Post by bane » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 1:28 PM UTC

zerovox wrote: post #2

Misleading headline. They blocked it for a few hours until n people complained. There was more legitimate use than expected, so they unblocked it again.

The real question is, as IT professionals, why would there be more use than expected? Would you expect the premier free cloud competitor to Office to be heavily used?

It's as misguided as most of the IT departments I've had to deal with blocking browsers other than IE because they are "insecure". No the other browser are not insecure, they just haven't bothered getting up to speed on the security profile of those browsers and confuse getting regular security bulletins about IE to be the same as being "secure".

Re: Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs

#15

Post by EwanToo » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 1:29 PM UTC

anonymouz wrote: post #9

EwanToo wrote: post #6

It's the perfect example of why security teams are often considered to be the least friendly, least approachable part of an already unapproachable department (IT). Their reasoning seems to be "Google Docs causes us (the security team) hassle, we don't use Google Docs, so we'll shut it down". They might as well of shut down the whole of the Internet, for all their nonsensical reasoning, except they'd of been affected…

No, their reasoning is that the continuous phishing attacks caused unacceptable trouble with their email system (e.g., Hotmail dropping all emails coming from Oxford). Due to extensive international collaborations, keeping a universities email system running is probably one of the most important tasks of the IT team. Google Docs is nice and useful, but nowhere near as important. Given that they, practically speaking,…

They could deal with the email issue in a number of ways, all of them causing the security, systems, and network teams hassle, but not end users.

For example, blocking all outgoing SMTP traffic except via approved internal relay servers would make tracking these millions of unexpected outgoing emails much easier. Most organisations already put these kinds of restrictions in place, it seems Oxford don't.

As far as I can see, their temporary blocking of Google Docs access did nothing but annoy users, cause them to lose face amongst users, and in the long term make users less likely to cooperate with the security team.

Re: Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs

#16

Post by fnordfnordfnord » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 1:33 PM UTC

brador wrote: post #8

How about putting a middle page up with a warning? So a student on the university network clicks a link to google docs and a warning appears warning of potential attacks using google docs, be aware, and click next to continue. Is this doable?

I don't think it's do-able, given the nature of SSL.

TBH, many faculty and staff will be just as bad; though, I question their assertion that anyone interested in a Higgs Boson would let a Uni-admin task distract them. Some physicists may not have any common sense, but are generally more tech-literate than average.

Re: Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs

#17

Post by toyg » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 1:33 PM UTC

brador wrote: post #8

How about putting a middle page up with a warning? So a student on the university network clicks a link to google docs and a warning appears warning of potential attacks using google docs, be aware, and click next to continue. Is this doable?

Users don't read warnings, they just click next.

Re: Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs

#18

Post by betterunix » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 1:34 PM UTC

anonymouz wrote: post #9

EwanToo wrote: post #6

It's the perfect example of why security teams are often considered to be the least friendly, least approachable part of an already unapproachable department (IT). Their reasoning seems to be "Google Docs causes us (the security team) hassle, we don't use Google Docs, so we'll shut it down". They might as well of shut down the whole of the Internet, for all their nonsensical reasoning, except they'd of been affected…

No, their reasoning is that the continuous phishing attacks caused unacceptable trouble with their email system (e.g., Hotmail dropping all emails coming from Oxford). Due to extensive international collaborations, keeping a universities email system running is probably one of the most important tasks of the IT team. Google Docs is nice and useful, but nowhere near as important. Given that they, practically speaking,…

"no alternative way of dealing with the phishing attacks effectively"

How about not using passwords? All students, staff, and faculty should have ID cards; start issuing smartcards, and start using cryptographic techniques to authenticate users. Also, digitally sign all official mail, and instruct the users to check those signatures.

These are not insurmountable problems. The real issue is that the IT team is not willing to push for a real solution, and instead went for a bandaid on a broken leg.

Re: Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs

#19

Post by calpaterson » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 1:35 PM UTC

brador wrote: post #8

How about putting a middle page up with a warning? So a student on the university network clicks a link to google docs and a warning appears warning of potential attacks using google docs, be aware, and click next to continue. Is this doable?

Google docs runs over SSL so there is no nice way to do this.

Re: Oxford Temporarily Blocks Google Docs

#20

Post by mpunaskar » Tue, Feb 19, 2013, 1:35 PM UTC

May be im wrong but why not set LIMIT of only X no. of mails can be Sent/Minute via user account.

Find out how many emails people usually send per minute/hour and just DENY relaying anything else over that limit. That way it'll be less profitable for spammers to acquire user account details if he/she can only sent X mails every minute.