On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:23:53 -0800, "J.D. Walker"
wrote:


Post by PaulTruong on Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:36 pm
... Any experience individual who has access to my IP
can spoof it easily. It does not take a genius for this....

It also bothers me that USCF contractors can do as they wish with
members' info without the consent or approval of the ED, EB or USCF
members. Anyone who violates the members' privacy and acted unethically
should be dismissed and have all their access to the USCF database and
members' info revoked immediately. And the USCF should go after any
contractor who violates the NDA which they signed....

Much has been made over the brief publication of IP addresses on the
USCF Members Only Forum. Brian Mottershead, who was the volunteer
responsible for this, was quickly directed to revoke this publication.
The IP addresses were exposed for a few hours, mostly in the middle of
the night, but their publication was especially troublesome to members
who had fixed IP addresses. Mottershead acknowledged he could have
handled it better. He was suspended, his suspension evidently driven
by strong demands from Truong and Polgar.

What I haven't seen discussed is that, some time (a few weeks, I
believe) before this fateful night, a poster on this rgcp forum had
suggested that IP addresses provided a way to trap the FSS. At that
time, the FSS had made a number of rgcp forgeries which copied large
amounts of material from the USCF Members website with a line or two
modified to change the meaning. Someone noted that a few of these
fake rgcp posts were made shortly after the original post appeared on
the USCF forum. It was suggested that checking the logs on the USCF
site would reveal a very short list of folks who had been active there
during the window of time between the original and fake post.

This approach seems similar to what Mottershead later implemented.

So, it was known some time before Mottershead did his analysis, at
least to regular posters, that a review of IP addresses could prove
dangerous to the anonymity of the FSS. I often wondered if this had
anything to do with Truong and Polgar reportedly demanding
Mottershead's immediate suspension when they found out he was
reviewing IP addresses. Admittedly, a more abstract concern with the
privacy issue provides an alternative explanation.