Hunter-Net Site Security

now (being the computer geek i am) i paid attention to the site, and how it seemed to work in the books.

it seems that the site has the following setup. you login to the site with a handle. that handle acts like an email. you have email through the site, but it is only insite, where you recieve the hunter list, and any of the other lists you are on, in addition to you pr.

it would be almost a bulletin board, almost a closed intranet. this means that the 'list' is NOT an email list, information is not being sent out of the site.

can it still be traced. yes. its MUCH MUCH harder, but yes. you would have to trace the information going from your computer to the site. or, hack into your computer and monitor what you do. takes effort, planning and a little more research into your subject than most crackers are known for doing (please note, cracker, breaks into things, hacker, knows a lot about computers. hackers are the good guys)

so, on this note. witness1 would be the moderator and the webmaster. security, encryption, ssl, all these things can be used to protect the hunter list, not to meantion edges (the defender edge, i believe)

what does this mean? simply put, even if for some reason your supe had dots in computers (rare for anything but silent striders and so mages, except makes A LOT of sense for changling, yet no one has tried them (least since i have been here)) then, why would you know of hunters, much less that we have a site, much less be able to get in, much less NOT have witness1 boot you after a single peep. (see FAQ for why monsters are a big no-no)

on a side note, this also would make it harder for people to scan posts for things concerning vampires and supes and things. my guess would be that the posts are encrypted on the hdd, and that each user has a key to the encryption. i would also wager that posts are removed after a certain amount of time to a database that is off line, ie a computer in a room with NO network or internet connection. everything, EVERYTHING would be logged, stored and databased. information should not be given out, but still be known, so if a supe did get on the list, a quick ip trace would give you a general location of such a perp, if not their exact location. (at least that's how i would do it)

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Non-Geek version

ok, if you were sending mail to a house, someone could just stop by and open the mail box and read it, or jump your mail man or something.

but. if you and everyone you knew was only writing notes inside the house, only passing them around inside the house, then it becomes really hard for someone to read the notes without breaking inside.

and even if they monitored your car and said "AH HA they go to that house..." they still can't be sure as to what you do inside.

and. if everyone wrote those notes inside the house with a secret code, then if someone were to look in through the window, they wouldnt understand the note even if they could see it.

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(an IC post that was sent to the list)

there has been some discussion on the protection of this site by something more than firewalls and nifty security programs.

the main thread (in my brief time here) has delt with whether or not hunters who are not imbued can find and use the list as we can. and, if they found the site, would they be able to use it. the predomitate argument was no, no they can't.

a counter to this is the giving the site address to supes. if a supe can sign in and join the list, then the firewall cannot be a total block from anyone who is not imbued.

i do have a theory.

perhaps it is not a firewall, a block, but something more subtle. what if whatever protects this list draws hunters to it, but everyone else is drawn away from it. not something that can't be overcome, just more passive. and this passive draw or push leads most hunters to the list, most imbued hunters, and most non-hunters away from it.

Orpheus