[Eril-l] hackers, messed up COUNTER data, and ezproxy vs openathens

[Nikki DeMoville]

Hi Melissa,

I'm sure you've already explored this, but just to make sure, have you tried adjusting your UsageLimit in EZproxy to make it harder for the bad actors using stolen credentials to mass download?  I'm sure they can find ways around it, but it might slow them down.

https://help.oclc.org/Library_Management/EZproxy/Configure_resources/UsageLimit?sl=en



Nikki DeMoville (she/her/hers)
Coordinator - Electronic Resources, Acquisitions, and Resource Sharing
Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California

Direct 805-756-5780
Fax 805-756-1415
ndemovil at calpoly.edu<mailto:ndemovil at calpoly.edu>

Due to the COVID-19 situation, I am working remotely. Please use email for all communications.

________________________________
From: Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org> on behalf of Melissa Belvadi <mbelvadi at upei.ca>
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2021 9:59 AM
To: eril-l at lists.eril-l.org <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>
Subject: [Eril-l] hackers, messed up COUNTER data, and ezproxy vs openathens

Hi, all.


We've had two more "rounds", for a couple months late last year and then again in May-June of this year, where our COUNTER data for some major journal publishers is worthless because breached-password events caused absurd spikes across every journal in the package (both ft uses and turnaways).  We have self-hosted ezproxy, with a Shibboleth/LDAP server doing the authentication.
Knowing that there's just no way for us to enforce password security so that leaks never happen, I was wondering if anyone could speak to whether it would make any significant difference to this problem if we were to switch from ezproxy to open athens. I know open athens would rely on that same underlying authentication, but I was given the impression that it had additional ways to prevent such hacking, especially if it is coming from overseas (we all know which countries' IPs these incidents originate from).

Could anyone who has switched from ezproxy to open athens and had previously experienced these kinds of problems share with us whether you've seen such breaches that are big enough to impact COUNTER data cease after you switched?


Melissa Belvadi
Collections Librarian
University of Prince Edward Island
mbelvadi at upei.ca<mailto:mbelvadi at upei.ca>  902-566-0581
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