Time to terminate "telnet-through"?

Jun 28 17:36 UTC 2000

In the June meeting minutes, eeyore wrote:
 
> Right now we are having about 30-40
>       credit cards declined every month. 

This is entirely speculative on my part, but:
 
1)  This is possibly a majority of our credit card transactions.
2)  My guess is that the companies may not like Grex having such 
    a high percentage of rejected credit cards.  Even if the 
    card firms don't get upset with us, it's wasted work for the 
    treasurer.
3)  My belief is that this is bad guys seeking to telnet into Grex
    and then telnet out again to do harm to other systems.
 
I suggest that it may now be time to end "telnet-through,"
allowing users who telnet into Grex to telnet out again.
My thought is that this would reduce the incentive for people to 
try to scam Grex with bad credit cards.

I do not suggest restricting telnet availability for connections
which originate on the local dial-ins.

But telnet-through has little real benefit -- if any -- for legitimate
users.  Anyone who is telnetting to Grex, then telnetting elsewhere, 
should just be able to go to their final destination directly.