Re: News groups

From: Robin T Cox (robin2803_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 06/12/03 

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 09:10:44 -0700

"Scott" <drx32us@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:0bea01c330eb$75e89350$a301280a@phx.gbl:

> My system administrator does not allow the use of news
> groups within my organization.
>
> When I ask why he is unable to give any reason beyond a
> vague it is a security risk.
>
> What exactly is the security risk?
>
> I understand that a developer can download from newsgroups
> but one could just as easily download something off the
> net.
>
> I would also be more then willing to provide a list of the
> particular groups to be let though
>
> Microsoft.public.security for example.
>
> Using web forms are not as convenient as having a
> newsreader that you can look though every morning and I
> also find that some third party vendors who's components
> that I use don't offer a way to post to there forums
> through the web.
>
> Could someone outline the risk for me?
>
> Thanks in advance

One possible security concern might be the fact that spammers very often
harvest email addresses from newsgroups. If your organisational email
address were to be harvested in this way, because you are posting to
newsgroups from that address, then the amount of spam received by your
organisation would increase, and spam is a major cost to organisations in
terms of wasted time and money.

Relevant Pages

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  • News groups
    ... My system administrator does not allow the use of news ... When I ask why he is unable to give any reason beyond a ... What exactly is the security risk? ... but one could just as easily download something off the ...
    (microsoft.public.security)