[LINK] Complaint to Min Communications re Telstra's redirection

[Adam Todd]

>I write to express my outrage that Telstra Corporation Limited is 
>re-directing Internet requests for the domain www.caseydonovan.com to 
>cover its embarrassing mistake earlier this week. Such interference with 
>the basic infrastructure of the Internet sets a dangerous precedent and is 
>probably illegal.
>
>I request that the Minister directs Telstra to cease this interference, 
>and to seek legal advice as to whether criminal charges should be laid 
>against those who sanctioned it.


Ouch.  How interesting.  Maybe this explains why some people on Big Pond 
can't get to iconoclast.inoz.com or to the other highly politically 
motivated web sites I have?

Perhaps the State Government has asked Telstra to "redirect" my domain 
names elsewhere to prevent people locally gaining access.

On the other hand, this has some benefits.  In that many laws where 
proceedings are under way prohibit the publication of details or 
identification, specifically of children, in the State in which those 
Proceedings are under way.

The media, being a network, usually broadcasts the stories in other states, 
leaving the local state void of the story.  It's just a way to get the 
country enraged - and it works.

Naturally of course I've used this method on the Internet, and laid claim 
to the BSA as a defence - successfully.

However, if the Government were to approach Telstra on issues of 
censorship, then we might have another problem to look at.

Personally I see this as censorship and perhaps people should double check 
their work, instead of assuming it's correct.

In 2002 we saw the publication of NON TELSTRA customer details without any 
regard for the fact that

   1.  The details were private and requested to be kept such
   2.  That changing the phone number didn't prevent the already
       published address from being used by people whom one didn't want
       knowing or accessing your private address

Yet again, Telstra has fscked up big time, perhaps the biggest in public 
because of the content itself and the fact that it's related to a 16 year 
old's web site and ended up on a porn site, both of which affect children 
and the issues of "presumed parental responsibility."

I never let a URL be printed or published without testing it first.  Not 
like it's hard to do.  Cut and PASTE.

>Telstra is causing the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) to deliver 
>incorrect data. That is, when an BigPond user's web browser is looking up 
>the Internet Protocol (IP) address for the domain www.caseydonovan.com, 
>instead of being given the correct address 198.104.148.252, they're 
>instead being told it's 144.135.19.91 -- a web server belonging to Telstra 
>BigPond.

A perfect point of proof for the evidence and precedent that Alternate 
Domain Name Resolution is a rational thing to do.

The Alternate Root and RSC's will be proud to know that Telstra is 
supportive of this process.

>This kind of redirection is extremely dangerous. The Internet relies on a 
>properly-functioning DNS to ensure that website and other requests are 
>directed to the correct server.
>
>For example, an Internet banking user who enters www.stgeorge.com.au is 
>relying on DNS to ensure that the website into which they enter their 
>username and password is indeed their bank's and not that of a criminal. 
>For this reason, DNS servers are some of the most frequently attacked 
>servers on the Internet. Protecting the integrity of DNS is vital for 
>Internet security.

Now you have opened up the phishing scam!

We'll NEVER trust another online URL again!  Push that line - push it hard!

How do we know that www.national.com.au is in fact going to NAB's servers 
and not some phisher trying to get our usernames and password.

Bah!

It's the end of the net!

Maybe I'll call a talkback station or two!