Dealing with Intruders?

drakyri asks: "I've been running a server for a small company for a few months. Recently, the number of attempted intrusions has jumped from about one every week to several per day - and these are only the really obvious attempts, like idiots who try to log in as root from the outside. The problem is that I'm not sure what to do about this. I've got their IP addresses and can usually tracert their ISP's - is there an accepted type of letter to send them without seeming like one of the corporate cease-and-desist gnomes?"

Comments

C'mon these are kids just learning.

[mewphobia]

Don't do anything. If you can see them in your logs, chances are they are just kids experimenting. They obviously have too much free time on their hands. Keep your sisters tight and learn from intrusion attempts but just let them play. No need to report it.

How else are they meant to learn? For a lot of geeky kids, this is their teen angst getting out. It's like the kids who steal your fruit from your fruit tree. It's an inconvienence, but they'll get over it eventually. And they'll develop an appreciation of fruit.

I used to be very security/network focused for a few of my highschool years. I grew out of it. Somehow life seems to get in the way.

Re:Very Easy

[sbergstrom]

Certainly we ought not deal consequences that could haunt someone for the rest of their life. What other kind of real consequence is there? People are willing to risk a slap on the wrist; if they realize that their actions can affect the balance of their personal and professional lives, they might more seriously consider NOT doing the things that they shouldn't be doing in the first place.