UW Computer Security Research and Course Blog

Summary:

At the UW IMA, members are allowed to checkout locker bins for a quarter where they may store their gym apparel. By checking out a bin, members are given a lock to use for the bin. The records of who has what bin and lock are kept in a binder, and the entries are recorded in pencil. In order to register for a bin, individuals must show a gym membership, and for students and staff, that would be their Husky IDs with a current registration sticker. Also, you must fill out a form with your student number, name, e-mail address, phone number, and I believe your resident address. All of this information is kept behind an open counter in the respective locker rooms.

Assets:

• Gym members would undoubtedly like to keep their information private. Information such as addresses can be very sensitive pieces of information and if compromised can open doors to countless scams and other criminal activity.
• The IMA takes measures to reduce theft in the locker rooms, and so safeguarding the lock combinations for individuals is an important measure. Once a thief has a combination, it would be very easy to gain access to the bin with the valuables.
• The bins themselves are assets to the IMA since there are only a limited number of them. Checking out bins and locks to non-members could cause harm to their services due to handling more customers than needed.

Potential Adversaries/Threats:

• The IMA employees who have access to the records. Employees have the easiest access to the records, and they also have the benefit of being in the locker rooms after hours when no people are present. This combination of circumstances would seem to give employees the best opportunity to be able to steal information or valuables.
• Individuals who are not members of the IMA. Obviously, the IMA would like to keep out individuals who are not subscribed and paying the quarterly fees so they do not interfere with their business operations by slowing down operations, making equipment sparse, and sucking up their budget in general.
• Individuals who are members of the IMA. Members of the IMA could have motives to steal from bins in the locker rooms just as much as employees. Albeit it might be more risky for these individuals, they still pose as threats as employees do.

Weaknesses:

• Records are kept behind an open counter in a binder or filing cabinet. If the records were left unattended for a short duration of time, they could be easily accessed just by opening a drawer or binder.
• The records for relating persons to bins/locks are written in pencil. Once these records are accessed, they could be easily and quickly modified (and most likely without a trace).

Potential Defenses:

• A plastic or glass window could be installed where the counter is for registering a bin much like you see at movie theater box offices. This would prevent an individual from simply hopping the counter and being in the employee restricted area.
• The records could be computerized. This way, they could be safeguarded by logging into the system. Also, it could be rigged to trace who logs in and when, so use of the records could be traced.

Risks and other issues:

Considering the assets listed above, I would say the private information and the bin/lock information of the members is the item at most risk. This is due to the ease of access to the records behind the open counter. As a secondary result of gathering this information, an individual could then open a bin easily because they would have the lock combination. Thus, stealing the valuables inside the bins would be at less risk than the previous asset since they would either need to successfully steal the combination first or break into the bin using force. Next, considering the threats and adversaries, I believe the employees have the least risk of being found out due to the reasons stated above. Members would have the second smallest risk from the list since they at least have access to the locker room, whereas non-members ideally do not. Finally, of the weaknesses above, I believe the first one listed is the easiest and least risky to pull off. This is due to the fact that modifying the records implies that you have gained access to them already.

I would say it is not likely the current system would evolve unless crime became a more common occurrence. Change requires effort, and the reality is, generally people do not like to put in effort unless it is needed. Also, as long as the system works (crime is not a concern) then why change? I think these are the main motivators which could cause change, so as long as the system maintains as it has, I do not see any foreseeable change.

By exploiting any of these vulnerabilities above, I would say such an act is definitely unethical. Exploiting these vulnerabilities is analogous to stealing, and as a society, we have agreed that stealing is wrong and should be punished. I do not believe this requires anymore explanation.

Conclusion:

Although there is not terribly sensitive information kept in the IMA locker records, it is still information that should be kept safer than it is. Many members of the gym keep their backpacks locked up temporarily when they use the facility. What do backpacks contain? Our livelihood as students; our books, music players, phones, laptops, homework, etc. If any of these were to be stolen due to laziness to keep our information safe, it would harm us significantly.

I do not see many individuals or groups who would try to access the IMA’s locker records for our personal information, however. The most sensitive private information they keep is perhaps our addresses and phone number. Perhaps a spammer might want these, or another advertising agent, but parsing large amounts of addresses and numbers from a hard copy source is not efficient. Thus, since the payoff is most likely small, it would seem unlikely that this would happen. It might be more likely that a crazed ex-friend would look up your information for their malicious intents.