Teknoids

Network authentication for user accountability?

Sanity check before surrendering to Big Brother...

I'm wondering what other schools are experiencing in the way of university
network security policy, particularly in regard to having each campus user
register their computer's MAC address (through a web page) for easy access
when the RIAA or police come calling.

We've required network authentication on the wireless from the beginning,
but it is new here on the wire. In the past it has been sufficient to link a
specific IP address to a specific MAC address at a particular time (by DHCP
log) and very simply find the problem computer. But you can't take a
computer to court, or fire it. They want people tied to those logs.

Nobody seems to mind that this is the online equivalent of logged ID readers
on every door and a GPS recorder in your car. This seems increasingly
relevant as more and more of life and work is online. I've asked a few
people and the consensus is that everyone already assumes they're being
monitored already so to learn it is being implemented is no surprise. Should
we all just acquiesce to the new surveillance state. Have we already?

So what is your school doing along these lines, what do you think about it?
Is this good or bad? Is it inevitable? Do only the guilty have anything to
fear?

-Michael Sparks