This is to alert you of an issue that may affect the occasional student or staff-member trying to access our electronic resources from off-campus. You will not encounter it often, but I’m aware we haven’t told you about this.

If Library IT detects a compromised login (most commonly a login being used in several different countries simultaneously) that login will be blocked from Ezproxy access. Nothing else will be affected and on-campus access to resources continues. The owner is notified by email and asked to change their password. Access is restored once they do this, and notify Library IT. However, not all students seem to read their student email, or have forgotten by the time they try remote access.

A student working overseas may also be affected if they are connecting through a network known to be widely used for illegal hacking attempts, as many of these networks are also blocked. Most of these are in Asia. We can work with such students to identify the networks they use, and so far we have been able to refine the blocking process to give them access.

For those interested, compromised logins may arise from a student or staff-member giving out passwords to others. But there are also organized rings that gather logins and use automated password cracking tools to try and get access. Such logins have a market value in giving access to proprietary resources. We try to keep a balance between inconveniencing travelling staff and students, and protecting our licensed resources – unlike some US University Libraries who now block any Ezproxy access from outside the USA.

I indicated this would be rare. So for instance, at the moment there are 10 blocked logins and I don’t think we have every had more than 15.
Peter