NetScape support [Was: prob w/ netscape news reading ]

Daniel W. Connolly (connolly@hal.com)
Mon, 17 Oct 1994 18:16:45 -0500


In message <199410171758.NAA20729@acmez.gatech.edu>, gt5627c@prism.gatech.edu w
rites:
>Hello all --
>There is one small problem with Netscapes implementation of news reading &
>dealing with the .newsrc.
>
>Other peoples forms can mess with your .newsrc. Wow. I can't believe that
>mcom did this.

This isn't the place to report problems with netscape. Netscape is a
product of Mosaic Communications Corp. Let's see... netscape says
to report problems to <x_cbug@mcom.com>.

Reporting the problem here:

(1) doesn't inform the relavent support/development folks
(2) spreads Fear Uncertainty and Doubt about their products
(3) wastes bandwidth on this WWW discussion forum

This is not the way I want to see commercial organizations and
products that mean to further WWW treated. [And even if they did't
mean to further WWW, we should let them fail on their own :-]

Now this happens to be a security issue, which makes it that much more
sensitive. Please use the utmost discretion in reporting internet
security problems.

I'm not intimately familiar with conventional wisdom regarding internet
security problem reporting, but here's some info from the Security FAQ:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/security-faq/faq.html

Q.9 Who can I contact if I get broken into?

If you're connected to the Internet, you should certainly get in touch
with CERT, the Computer Emergency Response Team.

To quote the official blurb:

>From: Ed DeHart
> The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) was formed by the Defense
> Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1988 to serve as a focal
> point for the computer security concerns of Internet users. The
> Coordination Center for the CERT is located at the Software Engineering
> Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.

> Internet E-mail: cert@cert.org
> Telephone: 412-268-7090 24-hour hotline:
> CERT/CC personnel answer 7:30a.m. to 6:00p.m. EST(GMT-5)/EDT(GMT-4),
> and are on call for emergencies during other hours.

Dan