Posted by Rick [Rick] on March 26, 1999 at 13:46:26 {FMFBt36XycUaxSWlouzkMWRctB9oBIfGc}:
Dear Friends,
Obviously, my implementing the new coding changes caused some confusion as evidenced in emails. The perception is that I'm trying to clamp down to identify posters. Several emails commented, to quote one especially incorrect assumption, that Jan Haugland's "thank you" and my reply thanking him for appreciating the changes, must mean I'm "supplying apostates with the code key to mark and track down Jehovah's people."
I reply to this concern that I have no contact with Jan Haugland via email or other means, I'm a Jehovah's Witness who believes in God and share few if any of his religious beliefs, and Jan Haugland has no connection whatsoever with H2O.
These changes are to make it more difficult for ANYONE to track down board participants or surmise their identities, incoming server, etc. The crypt() function as pointed out by one brother via email could compromise security, so I have opted for more secure crypt method and then used substrings and other scrambling methods to thwart decrypting efforts. The result is that those who might have hacked the old codes are left hanging out to dry in the wind, left with nothing.
Further, H2O is not run by apostates, but true Jehovah's Witnesses attending congregations (Kingdom Halls of Jehovah's Witnesses affiliated with the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York) throughout the world. It is true that some moderators are not Jehovah's Witnesses. Part of the problem is a shortage of volunteers who are Jehovah's Witnesses in good standing and willing to spend some time moderating the board within the boundaries of our Forum Participation Policy. Those volunteers who are not Witnesses but express interest in keeping the board free of pornographic and other abuses are a blessing and asset.
Consider, would you rather deal with possible pornography or gross obscenities? Would you complain if those who are not Jehovah's Witnesses helped maintain security at district conventions? I think each one of you who has complained in this regard knows the correct answer to both.
Moderators, either JWs or non-JWs, have no access to H2O administrative or server areas. Only a few admins including myself, those who started H2O, have access to administrative, server areas, and genuine H2O email.
Others expressed concerned my code was the same as M52's during first few minutes of starting the updated version of posting software. As I posted, the unix crypt() function would not concatenate the I.P. and User Name as expected; it dropped the User Name. The result was that The Anonymizer I.P. was crypted (using a slightly different crypt method than before for added security). Those same codes resulted from The Anonymizer's I.P. crypted, showing that both Moderator 52 and myself used The Anonymizer. Many moderators and some admins use The Anonymizer at certain times during the day.
Did you know half the lurkers who don't post come in under The Anonymizer? One emailed H2O he doesn't contribute in posting because he feared his Anonymizer I.P. would make it seem he was the same as other posters using Anonymizer! Good news brother, you can now post with your own unique code using Anonymizer. :-)
The new method of concatenating the User Name to I.P. address (both crypted multiple times, under different methods, using a highly secure method I cannot divulge for obvious security reasons) creates a unique code. Hackers would have to know how many times and under which methods crypt() was used, which is impossible because scripts reside in server secure areas.
Further, the server crypts TODAY'S DATE and puts this code as a substring at the start of the code (notice the code in my post is a lot longer?). This means everyday the first part of your code will change.
In the final analysis, H2O is many times safer for you to post on than when you all participated during the years prior to last night. Undoubtedly, hackers who might have figured out a decrypt method for posts are now left in the dark with the possibility that several centuries from now, the might crack the new coding schema.
Further, even if cracked, the code is stripped of vital components using substrings to make it WORTHLESS to hackers. ;-D
The result is that each poster has a unique code to allow H2O security the ability to remove serious abusers of our site. True, as before we cannot find out their true identities. All we can do, then, is essentially say "whomever it is that is attacking our board is locked out." Unless they violate Federal laws of attacking our server (in which case Federal law authorities intervene and discover their true identities through high tech methods), we will never know who they are. This means a repentant abuser who everyone wants permanently banned, could conceivably create a new identity and behave themselves thereafter. But isn't that the dream of Christianity, to see unrepentant wrongdoers repent and clean up their lives? Because H2O has set itself up technologically so that admins don't know who they are, these individuals who get blocked under one identity can repent, reregister, and engage in productive discussions.
To illustrate, imagine a technology that allows you to cause a person in a dark theater who is yelling obscenities to disappear from the theater and find themselves standing on the curb? Nobody knows who they are each time they enter and abuse others rights to enjoy the movie, but each time they simply disappear and find themselves outside the theater.
One day they realize life is too short for this embicile behavior, enter the theater, and quietly watch the show. Wouldn't that be nice if people could be encouraged to improve rather than permanently marked for life? That is what I see as a benefit to this anonymous technology of controlling abusive behavior rather than punishing the abuser by marking their real identity permanently. This is the technology that drives H2O and I intend to keep improving its security, ease of use, and reliability.
Rick