PAYG RIN users - blocked websites
It is possible that anyone on RIN may start to see that they are blocked from visiting certain websites as their IP addresses will be within the ranges for BT. The following comment has appeared on The Register:
Copied from: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/17/ripa_phorm_shambles/comments/
Quote We've now blocked all access from BT IP ranges to our websites
By Steve Roper
Posted Friday 18th April 2008 06:52 GMT
As the IT Manager for our company and an admin for 22 commercial domains, I have now circulated the following letter to all our clients who are operating eCommerce websites on our system:
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Dear [CLIENT_NAME],
It has recently come to our attention that BT, a major ISP in the United Kingdom, has allegedly been engaging in illegal interception practices possibly for the past few years. These practices involve intercepting traffic between your hosted website and any viewer of that site who is a residential customer of BT, and passing this intercepted information to a company known as Phorm, a known purveyor of spyware and malware. According to some reports, the possibility exists that even SSL encrypted traffic, such as credit card payment pages, may be intercepted due to the way ISP servers operate.
Obviously, this presents a serious fraud risk both for you and your valued customers. Consequently, we have put in place a system to prevent any person using BT as their ISP from accessing your website. Such persons will instead be redirected to a warning page advising them of the fraud risk and suggesting they use a different ISP. We believe that the loss of some visitors to your site is more than offset by the mitigation of the fraud risk presented by this situation.
If you disagree with our action, please advise us as soon as possible, and we will remove the anti-BT blocking at your request. However, should you choose to remove the blocking, you must agree to assume any and all liability for loss and damage as a result of credit card fraud on your website, since we cannot guarantee the security of your data in the face of such interception. In this case we will provide you with an amended Hosting Agreement which you would need to sign and return to us in order for us to continue hosting your website.
If you agree with our action, however, you need do nothing further, and your current Hosting Agreement and all data security guarantees will continue in full force and effect.
Should BT discontinue this practice and provide evidence that they are no longer intercepting their customers' traffic we will of course restore full access to your website for their customers.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further inquiries concerning this matter.
Regards,
Steve Roper
IT Manager,
[company details redacted]
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That's 22 domains that are now off-limits to BT users. So far, all of our clients who have responded have fully supported our action; the possibility of fraud resulting from this illegal interception is something our clients have taken very seriously. I strongly urge other companies hosting eCommerce websites to carry out a similar action, because the legal quagmire that could result from this is a very serious issue, both for you and for your clients.
Copied from: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/17/ripa_phorm_shambles/comments/
