Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!amelia!pioneer.arc.nasa.gov!samlb
From: samlb@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Sam Bassett RCS)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: How secure is UNIX?
Keywords: Security, ftp
Message-ID: <6365@amelia.nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 28 May 90 22:57:27 GMT
References: <100928@<1990May23> <9000030@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <1990May28.102235.10021@agate.berkeley.edu>
Sender: news@amelia.nas.nasa.gov
Reply-To: samlb@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Sam Bassett RCS)
Organization: Cynical old Sys Admin
Lines: 21


	Moral of the story:

	Don't put passwords in your .netrc, dum-dum.  (Or anywhere that
*anybody* can read 'em -- even you!)  (Don't assume it's the sysop,
either -- assume that UNIX is *NOT* secure until it is proven otherwise.)

	Note that I am not condoning snooping and poking by System
Administrators -- that is impolite, among other things.  I _AM_ taking
this kid to task for wasting net bandwidth with anguished (and
over-wordy) cries of outrage about something that his teachers should
have pointed out to him in his first semester.
	UNIX was not designed to be secure.  It was designed (sic) to
make programming and file-handling convenient.  If you want something to
be secure, either learn something about encryption or *KEEP IT OFF-LINE*


Sam'l Bassett, Sterling Software @ NASA Ames Research Center, 
Moffett Field CA 94035 Work: (415) 604-4792;  Home: (415) 969-2644
samlb@well.sf.ca.us                     samlb@ames.arc.nasa.gov 
<Disclaimer> := 'Sterling doesn't _have_ opinions -- much less NASA!'