MUST II Creates Privacy Concerns

By Broadside Staff Correspondent Andrew Pennebaker

I'm typing this on a public terminal. Normally, I'd be flipping a pen at my desk. Not today. This past Sunday for eight hours, the whole Mason network was down as it geared for a new login system: MUST II. If you thought MUST was irritating in the past, you won't be disappointed by MUST II.

The Juniper Unified Access Control (UAC) system is a gatekeeper for corporate networks. Unlike the old MUST, this time it knows about alternative browsers.

Not just Firefox and Safari, but Opera and Konqueror, too. You can still fool MUST into thinking that you're using a different browser with something like User Agent Switcher, but the system will reject your browser and force you to use a more standard one. Currently, MUST is limited to Internet Explorer on Windows 2000/XP/Vista. Mozilla support is so incomplete that MUST even crashes Firefox.

This is annoying to say the least. But it doesn't stop there. Students desiring access to high speed Internet access are required to install the Juniper Host Checker via ActiveX or Java. What does Host Checker do? It doesn't even say.

As a matter of fact, it performs a high level scan of your system each time you login, reporting to Mason the programs open on your computer and which ports are open. This helps the network team detect spyware and viruses on your computer, a problem which affects not only students but also the efficiency of the Mason network.

Unfortunately, this is a bad way to secure computers and an is invasion of privacy. The Juniper software is designed for large corporate networks where the users don't own the computers. At a university like Mason, the students do own the computers.

The software installs without providing a description of its functionality. The software also runs at the highest possible level of access: root. What if the Host Checker contains a bug?

Your computer can be harmed irreperably. This is bad security policy and bad software design.

Tip: If MUST is giving you problems, revert to browsing with Internet Explorer. Uninstall the Juniper Host Checker then reinstall it. Finally, enable and disable your network connection, or run "ipconfig /release" and "ipconfig /renew" in a Command Prompt window. Mac and Linux users, you are truly on your own. MUST II shows no sign of care toward non-Windows users.

For the university, MUST provides information on who's running piracy software, spyware, web servers and video games. Naturally, the university has the right to monitor their network for these processes.

But the way MUST does this is an invasion of privacy. Mason does not have the right to install such dangerous software on our computers. Unfortunately, the administrators have positioned the Host Checker such that anyone who wants to get online must install it. An e-mail was sent with instructions for getting Internet access without going through this rigmarole. Most users are just going to install this software because they don't have the time or expertise to care--all they know is they want to get online fast. MUST II has so many problems it will hopefully get pulled at the last minute in favor of the old system. Until then, I'll be at a kiosk near you.

In addition to installing a new login system, Mason has been busy adding more ridiculous roadblocks to the pursuit of happiness.

Now, even privacy tools designed to protect the identity of Internet users are blocked on the Mason network. Tor, SSH and HTTP proxies are all disconnected, as well as IRC conversations. These do not present a security threat to the university. They are very common tools, and also necessary tools.

Example: I pay monthly to host a website. If I cannot use SSH to connect to my Web sites, I am burning money. I also have paid for several video games, none of which have decent Internet connectivity—the Steam client can't even connect for updates. More money down the drain.

Mason is not obligated to provide Internet access, but neither is it sanctioned to impose its policy on our lives. The digital climate at Mason is becoming more and more like 1984.