Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uc!cs.umn.edu!ux.acs!clarson From: clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu (Chaz Larson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Resedit and FileGuard Message-ID: <1941@ux.acs.umn.edu> Date: 2 Aug 90 18:25:40 GMT References: <43434@apple.Apple.COM> <1938@ux.acs.umn.edu> <1990Aug2.164635.6825@midway.uchicago.edu> Reply-To: clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu (Chaz Larson) Organization: Iron City, USA Lines: 47 In article <1990Aug2.164635.6825@midway.uchicago.edu> dwal@ellis.uchicago.edu (David Walton) writes: >I don't think he actually said that ResEdit was available on the >machines (although I don't have the original message anymore, so I >could be wrong). In any case, lots of people have ResEdit who haven't >bought it, aren't programmers, and for the most part don't really know >what it's used for; they do know how to use it to do things like muck >around with the Finder information. Just because it's not publicly >available at this guy's site with a sign saying "Copy me" doesn't mean >that people can't get copies of it. And, as you said, folks who do >know how to use it can then use it to gut _any_ software on any >Macintosh they please. That's true, but do you [or more accurately, does he] want to mess around trying to secure his machine[s] from what could be the most powerful tool avaiable for the mac? From what I've read, FileGuard, along with many other products, can be very effective in deterring some attempts to mess with the machine, but none can really stand up to malicious attempts to circumvent them. t seems to me that the users of a public computing facility can be loosely split into two groups: 1. Clueless people. These folks just want to come in, use SuperPaint, and leave. They're not interested in how the machine works; only that it does. If they were to destroy something with ResEdit, they would do so because they launched ResEdit to see what it did, and got in over their heads. These folks don't bring ResEdit in with them; one can avoid problems by making sure that tools like ResEdit are not avaiable to them in the facility. 2. Computer-literate people. These folks know how the machine works, and have outside access to tools and such. They will very often carry things like ResEdit around with them. In my experience, trying to make a public facility immune to them is a losing proposition. -- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Must think...bubble pipe will relax me and I think..." - Flaming Carrot clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu AOL:Crowbone