Using the IP address, the date and time of the incident, and a few court orders, you MIGHT be able to distinguish an individual, but probably not. Using a court order to force AOL or some other ISP to turn over logs could potentially put you in the house or office of the perp, but proving who was sitting in the chair is difficult. And of course, getting a court order isn't all that easy either.
THen, what about all the university computer rooms and cafe's that have access? You can pinpoint the room, but that's about it. And if the perp is international... I guess I should give the answer that on the Internet general (not in closed systems), knowing the IP address has no security benefits. You could use a cookie to block the machine, but would probably want to expire it somewhat quickly if your application is likely to be accessed from public terminals. J.R. -----Original Message----- From: Diane Schips [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:37 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [wdvltalk] How much security do IP address provide? I have a customer who has an "email this to a friend" page that's being abused, and he's catching a great of flack over it. He wants me to record IP addresses when people sign up for the forum and the email list, etc., and to provide the IP address in the subject line of the "email this to a friend" email. I'm happy to do it, but I was wondering if anyone on this list had any additional suggestions? Diane ____ � The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM � ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% ____ � The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM � ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
