Freenode IRC logging archive Echelog is shutting down

A long time ago parsing Echelog logs was how I was able to monitor the IRC activity of an attacker at a company I used to work at. I didn&#x27;t normally sit on these channels myself, but Echelog enabled me to look back and collect data on the various handles that this person operated under.<p>There were 20-something handles they used over approximately a 6 month period of monitoring. I was always able to find a small piece of information to correlate these handles together. Sometimes it started with a hunch, such as the language (even slang) they would use, but eventually they&#x27;d slip up in some way and we&#x27;d have a pretty irrefutable link to the person.<p>This information helped us develop a motive behind the hack and the ongoing public info was then fed to national crime agencies. My employer never went through with prosecution, but as this person was of much interest behind other hacks they were eventually prosecuted and convicted. I always wondered if my occasional Echelog intelligence reports ever had a role in that conviction.

I don&#x27;t really use IRC anymore but at the time I remember really hating loggers. Chats were informal and I really didn&#x27;t like them showing up in google results and elsewhere. Not everything needs to be saved.

I just wanted to take a moment and share with the HN community that IRC is definitely very alive and kicking! There are great channels for thousands of amazing projects, communities and teams spread across so many great IRC Networks, from Freenode [1] to OFTC [2], to Rizon [3], to DALnet [4], to tildeverse [5], Snoonet [6], Quakenet [7], EFnet [8], IRCnet [9] among other networks [10].<p>IRC is no longer difficult to use; there are great software applications across nearly every device that can be named which can work with and present the RFC1459 protocol splendidly, including weechat [11], KiwiIRC [12], Textual [13], Palaver [14], to mIRC [15], and AdiIRC [16], among others!<p>IRC has bots hosted by the community that can hook into github like bitbot [17] and supybot [18] among others.<p>You can also stay connected to IRC using an IRC bouncer like KiwiBNC [19], znc [20], IRCCloud [21], Quassel [22], Bitlbee [23] or shamlessplug jbnc [24].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;freenode.net" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;freenode.net</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oftc.net" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oftc.net</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;rizon.net" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;rizon.net</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dal.net" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dal.net</a><p>[5] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tildeverse.org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tildeverse.org</a><p>[6] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;snoonet.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;snoonet.org&#x2F;</a><p>[7] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;quakenet.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;quakenet.org&#x2F;</a><p>[8] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;efnet.org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;efnet.org</a><p>[9] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ircnet.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ircnet.com</a><p>[10] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;netsplit.de&#x2F;networks&#x2F;top100.php" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;netsplit.de&#x2F;networks&#x2F;top100.php</a><p>[11] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;weechat.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;weechat.org&#x2F;</a><p>[12] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kiwiirc.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kiwiirc.com</a><p>[13] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;codeux.com&#x2F;textual" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;codeux.com&#x2F;textual</a><p>[14] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;palaverapp.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;palaverapp.com&#x2F;</a><p>[15] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mirc.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mirc.com&#x2F;</a><p>[16] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;adiirc.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;adiirc.com&#x2F;</a><p>[17] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;jesopo&#x2F;bitbot" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;jesopo&#x2F;bitbot</a><p>[18] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Supybot&#x2F;Supybot" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Supybot&#x2F;Supybot</a><p>[19] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kiwiirc.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kiwiirc.com&#x2F;</a><p>[20] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;znc.in" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;znc.in</a><p>[21] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;irccloud.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;irccloud.com&#x2F;</a><p>[22] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;quassel-irc.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;quassel-irc.org&#x2F;</a><p>[23] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bitlbee.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bitlbee.org&#x2F;</a><p>[24] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;realrasengan&#x2F;jbnc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;realrasengan&#x2F;jbnc</a><p>Edit: Added a few that I accidentally left out. Thank you all! If I left anyone else out I apologize - IRC is so decentralized, spread out, and... alive... that it&#x27;s hard to name all of the amazing projects, networks and implementations out there!

This is sad because BotBot.me shut down not that long ago too.<p>We are pretty reliant on Whitequark&#x27;s logger at the moment. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;freenode.irclog.whitequark.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;freenode.irclog.whitequark.org&#x2F;</a>

So, I&#x27;m too young to have ever used IRC. This must be a biggish deal to make it #2 on HN homepage. But can someone put this in perspective of how big a deal this is?<p>On a scale of &#x27;Rando County Legacy ISP-provided email service&#x27; to &#x27;Gmail&#x27; is shutting down, where does this lie?<p>IRC is not email, etc. but again, never seen this community.

I have an irc server, no rules, nothing illegal though. we have fun! irc.t60group.org +6697 #kotu

I also ran a public IRC logger (mostly in and around the perl&#x2F;raku communities, but also other channels).<p>Simplify figuring out if IRC logs fall under GDPR was nearly impossible to me, so I shut down some time ago. (It might have violated earlier privacy regulations as well, hard to tell).<p>Lots of people offered their opinion on that topic, but when it goes to court, none of those opinions matter. Hiring my own lawyer seemed too expensive, and nobody who asked me to continue running it offered to pay for a lawyer either. Tough luck.

I wonder if archive.org would be interested...

Honestly, it is sad but I grew up on IRC. Time to put all those ill advised remarks to bed..

Can I use this on my iPhone? I haven&#x27;t been able to find easy to use ones.

Good riddance. I like irc more when I don&#x27;t have to measure every word I say because some douchebag is silently logging everything and putting it in a website for everybody to see, index and archive, without my permission or anybody else&#x27;s.

Sad to see GDPR still slowly killing anything too small to pay a legal team (basically anything that can be sued that hasn&#x27;t incorporated, ie, human persons).<p>&gt; Furthermore, the cost (financially, mentally and legally (GDPR)) of running the site, no longer makes sense for me.

I am surprised that privacy aware companies are not using IRC more for their intra company chat, and that none invested in a webcam voice chat client for IRC. Even the most basic server can handle thousands of clients.