Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!coplex!dean
From: dean@coplex.uucp (Dean Brooks)
Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
Subject: Re: Possibly nefarious users
Message-ID: <1991Jun8.155249.14519@coplex.uucp>
Date: 8 Jun 91 15:52:49 GMT
References: <2D.-_.N@cs.widener.edu> <1991Jun6.214915.18946@athena.mit.edu> <1991Jun7.164102.672@progress.com> <1991Jun7.184025.25010@eng.umd.edu>
Organization: Copper Electronics, Inc.
Lines: 39

russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) writes:

>In article <1991Jun7.164102.672@progress.com> matth@progress.COM (Matthew J. Harper) writes:
>>
>>Just because a guest account exists does not mean that it is there for all in
>>the world to log in and look around!  Perhaps if we looked at a different 
>>situation from the same outlook:
>>
>>  If you leave your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition, does this give
>>anyone who walks by the right to take it for a spin?  Even if they return it
>>where they found it, nobody saw them do it, and there is really no proof that
>>they were there?
>>
>>  I think anyone would be pretty pissed if this happened.
>>
>>  Is there really a difference?

>Is there really a similarity?  I see a guest account as an invitation.

Of course there is.  That is the current problem; many people see a 
guest account as an invitation.  Simply because there is an account
named with the letters "g", "u", "e", "s", "t" or "d", "e", "m", "o"
that doesnt necessarily have a password, does *NOT* mean that it is
legal for you to access the account.

However, as you point out, a guest/demo account w/out a password is
a very stupid idea.
 
>Oh, and if you made a habit of leaving your car unlocked with the keys in the
>ignition, and people came by and took it for a spin now and then, I suspect
>the cops would just laugh at you for being such an idiot if you tried to 
>prosecute them.

That doesn't change the fact that it would be illegal.

--
dean@coplex.uucp (Dean Brooks)
Copper Electronics, Inc.
Louisville, Kentucky