Detection of File Sharing by Authorities

[sabatiersabrik]

Hi,

I'm on a university network and have been downloading software through vuze since last October.

Last week the college authorities disconnected me from the network because they detected that I had been using file sharing software (specifically, downloading windows xp). As a result I have been fined. I also had to meet the dean and explain myself. Now, I told him that I required winXP for my dissertation (I use a Mac). So he said I should tell this to the computing services to see if they will remove the fine, since I had a 'good' reason for using file sharing software!!!

Now my question is this: If I go to the computing services and plead my case, is there any chance that they have a log of all the stuff I downloaded in the last couple of months? Or can they only see what I'm downloading while it is happening? Because as you can probably understand, I don't want to be fined anymore if they find out about all the other stuff I've been downloading!

So, anyone who's in the know, what do you think? Should I go to the IT officer and risk being completely found out? Or just leave it and settle with a fine for one offence?

[Hairbautt]

Deny everything.

[sabatiersabrik]

Deny everything.

I like your attitude...

[Sonnentier]

You have been fined - does this mean you need to pay money, is Microsoft involved into this? Just curious.

[Saroman]

Deny Everything lol.. What if they have his USAGE stats with exact details. (Ok I am not sure if theres way to log that, especially by College Authorities)

[sabatiersabrik]

I've been fined ~100 pounds by the college authorities. Microsoft has nothing to do with it.

Its kinda hard to deny though. I mean, how could I explain that Vuze somehow got installed on my computer, without my knowledge, and was systematically downloading all the blockbusters, computer games and a few different versions of Windows?!!!

My only hope is that they don't have a log of all my file sharing activity. I suspect that someone in the IT department just happened to look at my account the other day and see that I was sharing winXP over the network, since that was the only one being actively shared at that time.

[djerholler69]

I was thinking, if you used a seedbox to download/upload and used ftp to get the finished downloads, could the college peeps be able to detect it? I doubt so right?

[saulin]

Being an administrator I can tell you that in colleges and other institutions many times software will be installed on every system that allows the administrators to see exactly what you are looking at on your screens. They know which sites you visit as well.

If you were using a torrent client and they know you downloaded XP they could have seen you downloading it or simply they saw the files on the hard drive on the pc you used. It's also easy to find out which computers are using the most bandwidth and that's probably how they tracked you. A domain administrator can see the content of any hard drive on the network. In fact we have access to all the data as far as deleteing files, copying files etc... Only very sensisitive data can be blocked from any user including domain administrators if the policy of the work place especifies that it must be blocked.

Depending who is handling the case it's not as easy as just denying it. There could be logs and if they already blocked the access to the network, the files you downloaded are most likely still on the PC unless you deleted them. Mmmm your best option is probably to talk to the admins to find out what evidence they have and maybe they can help you if you give them a good enough reason.

[Hairbautt]

But admit nothing.

[hardsharing]

A domain administrator can see the content of any hard drive on the network. In fact we have access to all the data as far as deleteing files, copying files etc... Only very sensisitive data can be blocked from any user including domain administrators if the policy of the work place especifies that it must be blocked.

lol access to private hard drive... thats a breach of privacy and rights, not to mention ILLEGAL. no where in any university ToS would you find something like that. now if you were using a campus pc then yes, searching would be within their right, but having an IT staffer attempt to access your HD on your PERSONAL computer is paramount to 'breaking and entering'...

what IS allowed however is traffic/bandwidth monitoring so you're SoL my friend.