Xref: utzoo comp.org.eff.talk:2462 alt.privacy:710 alt.censorship:2407
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!mikea
From: mikea@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Atkinson Michael)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,alt.privacy,alt.censorship
Subject: Re: Prodigy charged with invading users' privacy
Message-ID: <1991May28.050807.18871@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>
Date: 28 May 91 05:08:07 GMT
References: <1991May24.225008.6510@unlinfo.unl.edu> <a6JL31w164w@kharma.UUCP> <ROCKWELL.91May27224016@socrates.umd.edu>
Organization: Northwestern University
Lines: 31

rockwell@socrates.umd.edu (Raul Rockwell) writes:
>Dave Laird:
>   I will always wonder what they really had in mind with STAGE.DAT,
>   probably never will really trust them, and do not recommend that
>   anyone with sensitive data on their hard disk call them without
>   taking precautions. Gee, does this make me sound paranoic?
>
>nahh.. that's barely even security concious.  People truly concerned
>about security don't hook their machines up to the outside world at
>all, run them in shielded rooms, do extensive validation on both the
>equipment and the software, etc.
>

	I have a few files on my hard drive that I don't care for others to
see.  I have .ZIPed them with encryption, which on a MS-DOS machine with
PKZIP is fairly easy to do.  Maybe somebody with a serious decryption
program could figure out that it is zipped (has inoccuous .ext) and could
figure out my key, but it isn't *that* sensitive.


>And if you were truly paranoid, you'd probably have the entire system
>rigged to be destroyed in case of an emergency, with armed guards and
>extensive surveillance of the surrounding area, and maybe a few mines,
>etc. etc.
>
>Raul Rockwell

Michael A. Atkinson       | "Life doesn't happen in straight lines."
mikea@casbah.acns.nwu.edu | All opinions expressed herein are solely
Student Consultant        | those of my friend Buck the squirrel.
Academic Computing and Network Services, Northwestern University