[TriLUG] stollen computer

al johson alfjon at mindspring.com
Wed Oct 3 21:15:13 EDT 2001


Don't forget where this computer is located. Reston, Va is not some one
horse town in the computer world. It is allegedly even more sophisticated in
the computer world than RTP!! There are a large number of high-tech
companies in that area of the country. In fact, I've seen some studies that
rank Reston much higher than our local area in this regard. So you're
probably not dealing with some half-wit Windows user. Maybe a Bin Laden
associate??
=================
----- Original Message -----
From: Fred Stutzman <stutzman at email.unc.edu>
To: <trilug at trilug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] stollen computer


>
> On Wed, 3 Oct 2001, Chris Merrill wrote:
>
> > Fred Stutzman said:
> > > I'm guessing this is a linux machine, hence Trilug list.
> >
> > I've been assuming it is Windows.  I thought that the Linux security
> > provided some assurances that somebody accessing the box
> > cannot simply login.
>
> A properly secured Windows NT/2000 box will disallow local unauthorized
> user login as well.  Security is not just a Linux thing.
>
> But...
>
> Since services like FTP, DynDNS, and Apache are started at boot time, and
> user independent, Eric would be able to discover, log in remotely and
> administer the machine while the guy in Reston stares at the screen
> waiting for Windows to boot up.
>
> >
> > Admittedly, with physical access to the computer, a determined
> > hacker _will_ get in...but why bother?  It seems unlikely that somebody
> > who wanted in that bad (and had the talent to accomplish it) would not
> > then be using the machine as if it was theirs...and would notice
> > something like a dynamic DNS daemon?
> >
> > In fact...in this case, it's probably better if it is
windows...otherwise
> > they would have formatted the drive and installed windows and
> > you'd have no way to trace it!
> >
> > Chris
> > _______________________________________________
> > TriLUG mailing list
> > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> >
>
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