Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!mit-eddie!mit-amt!garp!henry From: henry@garp.mit.edu (Henry Mensch) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Unix userid conventions Message-ID: <818@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> Date: Mon, 9-Mar-87 01:52:20 EST Article-I.D.: mit-amt.818 Posted: Mon Mar 9 01:52:20 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 9-Mar-87 19:46:13 EST References: <4788@brl-adm.ARPA> <12571@watnot.UUCP> Sender: usenet@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU Reply-To: henry@garp.UUCP (Henry Mensch) Organization: The Temple of St. Todd the Incontinent Lines: 23 djfiander@watnot.UUCP (David Fiander) wrote: ->I don't see how having cryptic userids does anything but make it difficult ->to communicate through the obvious medium of electronic mail. Well, sometimes it helps the people who run the place (often these people are called "bean-counters") keep track of what's going on without expending much effort. Some time ago, when I worked in the Midwest, I was assigned a login name of "ag5". This had nothing to do with security--instead, it seems that these ridiculous login names (yes, they were all three-character login names) mapped to account names on an archaic system on which the bean-counting (and lots of other miscellaneous batch processing) was performed. These login names were automatically generated, although it seems that (now) if you kiss the appropriate bottoms there you can get your initials as a login name. Nevertheless, I think you're right. Cryptic login names make things difficult for the user, and if a cracker wants in, (s)he'll get in whether the login names are obvious or not. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Henry Mensch {ames,cca,rochester,mit-eddie}!garp!henry