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Relay Chat (IRC) >
IRC Security
See the Internet
security section for general security information. This section describes
IRC specific security risks. IRC
is
an
insecure, public space, so you should have fun but be cautious:
- Confidentiality. The IRC space is completely insecure with respect
to confidentiality. Any user on IRC can record the conversation on a channel,
and many people do. And anyone administering
one of the servers on the network can record all of the conversations on that
network.
The one protection you have is that your identify should be
restricted to your nickname. However, your real identify could be discovered based
on your IP address in the event someone
went to the trouble of breaking into the IRC web server logs.
On systems
like DALnet that provide you with a permanent nickname your identity is technically easier to discover,
although in normal circumstances an IRC administrator will not provide this information
to third parties unless under a valid court order. - Gender.
IRC is a large public space, like a big city,
and a woman can sometimes attract unwanted attention. Women shouldn't choose
feminine nicknames unless they want to advertise their gender, and may
want to choose
a neutral name like "Yukon" or something similar.
- Personal
information. Never under any circumstance give out your address, phone number,
real name, or
other identifying information to anybody on the Internet, no matter who they say they are or what
the reason is.
- Viruses. Never run an IRC script or
type a command that someone else asks you to, unless you are absolutely sure
you know what it does. For example, the IRC command "/fserve 1 c:\" can
give a hacker access to your hard drive. Other commands can give a hacker complete
control of your IRC session with very undesirable results. This ability of
IRC to run scripts has been exploited by worms to
propagate across the Internet. And of course, make sure you are running a virus
protection program.
Resources. The following sites provide more information on IRC security:
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