Forum Topic

Police warn students to avoid science website

Police warn students to avoid science websitePolice have warned students in the UK against using a website that they say lets users "illegally access" millions of scientific research papers.The City of London police's Intellectual Property Crime Unit says using the Sci-Hub website could "pose a threat" to students' personal data.The police are concerned that users of the "Russia-based website" could have information taken and misused online.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-56462390Why not close it down, I wonder....

Ivonne Holliday ● 1840d9 Comments

Thanks, Simon. It's interesting that it's the City of London Police fraud unit issuing this, not the NCSC which suggests it's definitely the copyright issues that's the main concern. It would be plausible that the site could collude with Russian criminals or state to seed malware from documents into university networks to perform additional theft of data but it seems a rather obvious ploy. I wonder on what basis the CoL Police state it's illegal to access documents on this site? It would be if the site was in the UK (and the site would be illegal) but international copyright law gets complex (and I wouldn't claim to understand it!) - it's possible the latest UK copyright law does make it illegal to access - or posses - them but all I know is when I was working with a corporate lawyer to get Google to remove some stolen and modified videos uploaded to YouTube from Russia that were used as part of a fraud they wouldn't on the basis the scammers might be acting legally in Russia ... still, perhaps Google are frightened of the Russian mafia!

Michael Ixer ● 1839d

Thank you Michael for the question. It is unclear why it is being painted out to be such an evil. To my knowledge there is no evidence of security breaching and malware etc. I'd welcome you to enter a DOI into the website and see how easy it is to get a paper. You are not required to enter any personal details passwords etc to access this. So my understanding would be the most the website mines from you is your IP address. It could be an anti russian bias which suggest the maker is collobarating with russian intelligence etc so until I have concrete evidence to confirm it is actual an evil monster I will continue to applaud it's aims. The free dissemination of science is desirable. The capitalist model of publishing science will be thought of as peculiar in decades to come.

Simon Sharp ● 1839d

Simon. Correct, I'm not a science researcher (although I did have access via my OU account to many sites when I was doing some OU business and science courses); however, I have no view on merits of this site, I was just noting the impracticalities of the police trying to block it in the UK. From the information security angle I'm interested in why the police are interested in warning people about it and are warning people off using it; can you provide any light on that? It's possible that if the site's hosted in Russia it isn't breaking any copyright laws. It's obviously up to the policies of individual universities whether they block access from their networks, although I'd assume if students put their security credentials into this site and they're subsequently used for illicit activities then this students could be in breach of their universities policies? (Although I'm not sure why they would enter their credentials into the site if it's not linked to legitimate organisations.)

Michael Ixer ● 1839d

The whole OA/Open Science movement is all a bit of mess. There is a lot of good being done but at the heart of this is the major publishers, who are driving readers to sites like these... Until the predatory publishers (particular in the sciences (and I include the household names in that)) address their models, this will just continue.

Ben Rainbow ● 1839d

As a science researcher I openly can say I use this website routinely. My university (major world top 10) has access to most scientific journals and papers but some just aren't accessible. The option is to pay 200 or so pounds for personal access to scientific literature or use this fantastic website aimed at opening access to research to all. Not just westerners like me lucky enough to be part of an institution. Anyone commenting on this matter not in science really will not be well informed enough to have an opinion.

Simon Sharp ● 1839d

Ivonne, I'm a bit rusty on how this works - its a mixture of legal intricacies and network technical structures - but the sites would need to be blocked by all tier one internet service providers such as BT. That is done for websites that are ones carrying banned material; for example, ones containing child pornography or terrorist information. There's a list of such websites and blocking them is legally sanctioned by law. It becomes more difficult where its a civil offence and legislation varies between countries. It's easier in non democratic countries like China where they have their "great firewall"!

Michael Ixer ● 1840d

Is it me or does the expression "wet paint do not touch" come to mind?That said I seem to be getting a lot of dodgy emails from Belgium lately pretending to be various UK organisations.

Ed Robinson ● 1840d

Perhaps, I do not understand how these things work.But later in the article it says:"But Max Bruce, the City of London police's cyber protection officer, has urged universities to block the website on their networks because of the "threat posed by Sci-Hub to both the university and its students"."If universities are able to block the website, why can it not be done on a national basis.  I did say I do not know how these things work!

Ivonne Holliday ● 1840d

Getting a website hosted in Russia taken down probaby isn't easy ... 

Michael Ixer ● 1840d