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From: jmaynard@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu (Jay Maynard)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Why idle users should be killed (was Re: Preventing Idle in telnet)
Message-ID: <4133@lib.tmc.edu>
Date: 30 Sep 90 04:44:22 GMT
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In article <13970@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>Seriously, you seem to imply that there is some sort of "problem"
>that needs to be solved.  Just what IS the problem?

This is primarily a security issue. The problem is that users will walk off
and leave their terminals logged on, thus allowing someone else to walk up
to the terminal and gain the security privileges of the original user. An
auto-logoff is one way of fighting this problem with some chance that a
problem will be prevented rather than punished. An auto-lock is a better
solution, to me, but presupposes that a secure lock can be established.
-- 
Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can
jmaynard@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu  | adequately be explained by stupidity.
"It's a hardware bug!" "It's a    +---------------------------------------
software bug!" "It's two...two...two bugs in one!" - _Engineer's Rap_