From: stewarts@ix.netcom.com
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 06:15:30 +0800
To: "Michael E. Carboy" <carboy@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: Snooping ISP admin??
Message-ID: <199609231830.OAA19726@attrh1.attrh.att.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 06:15 AM 9/23/96 -0700, "Michael E. Carboy" <carboy@hooked.net> wrote:
>Question for the group:  I have encountered a situation that causes me
>to believe an ISP is snoopingthrough encrytped mail.  It seems that
>PGP'd mail has aroused the curiosity of an ISP (not hooked.net).. 
Well, if it's encrypted, it shouldn't matter much if they're snooping :-)

>I have
>encountered "POP3 account in use by another user" several times in the
>past few days and I am the only user... wondering if that "in use"
>messsage is the result of a clumsy sysadmin being caught with his hand
>in the cookie jar. 

Three possibilities
1) The sysadmin (unlikely).  Aside from the fact that most sysadmins
know better, it's easier for them to just copy your mailbox to /tmp
and read it with emacs instead of using the POP handler to read it.
2) Crackers, especially if you've got a wimpy password
3) System problems - I use Eudora with my Netcom account, and sometimes
I'll have bad modem connections or Windoze crashes that will hang my
computer or connection in the middle of fetching mail.
This leads to that kind of symptom - the server doesn't quite realize
that I've hung up.  Usually this times out in an hour or two,
but your mileage may vary, especially depending on you're ISP's POP server.

Start by assuming it's a computer problem, then try attributing stupidity,
and only then go for malice. :-)  And if they are snooping, asking them
about the "technical" problems you're having would at least let them
know to stop it.

#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com
# <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> 	
# You can get PGP software outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto