Re: [9fans] First-timer help

[Dave Lukes]

On 18 Jul 2005, at 00:17, Charles Forsyth wrote:

So when I'm not around and somebody decides to boot the computer and
delete all my files, that's just okay then?

they could anyway, at least with Linux.  (boot the 
installation/recovery
CD and get a root shell.  even without the shell, at the very least all
the ones i've used recently allow me to wipe an existing installation
and replace it with a  new one.  i enjoy that.)

This is all interesting but pretty much irrelevant.

If you store data on a machine to which other people have physical 
access,
there are many simple ways for them to remove or tamper with it.

Many of these methods (powerful magnet, hammer, open the case and steal 
the drive(s))
are pretty much hardware- and OS-independent.

"This system is secure until removed from the hermetically sealed 
Faraday caged concrete box".

That is one of the reasons why plan9 regards "your computer" as being
a network terminal with some computing capability rather than a 
mainframe on your desktop.

    DaveL.