New media firm questioned on privacy concerns

From...

July 18, 2000
Web posted at: 8:57 a.m. EDT (1257 GMT)

by James Evans

(IDG) -- A new media company offering access to photo, video and music clips may also be providing some unauthorized access to multimedia files on unsuspecting users' hard drives.

Beverly Hills, California-based Internet company Scour Inc. has a search engine program allowing just that possibility, leading to scrutiny of its service, including a page one article in last Friday's Los Angeles Times. Scour appeared to have taken the unwanted attention to heart this week saying it will implement new technology in the next few days that will no longer permit the unauthorized access capabilities.

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Scour's free search engine allows users to share multimedia files with each other via a file-sharing program. The search program, moreover, permits searches throughout the Internet and will locate PCs that have the public file-sharing capabilities turned on with multimedia files.

If certain conditions exist, such as file sharing being turned on and the user's computer being hardwired to a cable or DSL (digital subscriber line) connection, it may be feasible for Scour's crawler to index the PC's files.

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"Once you have the link open, you should be able to get the (Internet Protocol) address on the other side," said Rob Enderle, a senior industry analyst with Giga Information Group Inc., based in Santa Clara, California. "If the drives are password protected, it is far more difficult to get access."

However, he added, "If sharing is turned on and there's no password protection to the hard drive, you are just playing Russian roulette." Hard-drive password protection or a firewall are recommended to avoid unwanted intrusion, he added.

Scour spokesman Miguel Cortez said no company officials were available for comment Friday. But the firm did release a statement.

"Scour technology only searches files that people explicitly state they want to share with the public, and Scour has always provided users a way to request that their files not be included in Scour searches using common Internet search engine conventions," the company said in the statement.

Scour's search engine uses the SMB (server message block) file-sharing protocol. SMB provides a method for a computer's client applications to read and write to files and to request services from server programs in a computer network. Microsoft's Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems all include client and server SMB protocol support.

In the company's statement, Scour officials said the SMB file search capability will be eliminated in the next few days. The feature will be replaced with the firm's own search application, Scour Exchange, they added.

"Scour has always considered online privacy a top priority," the company said in the statement.

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The Los Angeles Times

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