On Tue, 3 Oct 2000, Mjo wrote:
Great first time - glad to see you guys active!
> Well, we met for the first time today! :)
>
> We had 8 people show up, with many others interested who couldn't come. It
> didn't help that for some reason no one but myself received my reminder e-mail.
>
> We discussed lots of organizational details, such as getting official KSC
> organization status (which would funnel some money to us), coming up with a
> constitution, getting donation machines, swinging course credit for involvement,
> etc.
>
> Wendy and I have been talking about having "chairman" count as a 400 level
> "field experience" (new name for independent study) and "vice chairman"
> counting as a 200 level field experience. This will help the department keep
> some sort of Linux experience offered, as well as ensure the continuation of
> the LUG.
>
> We have 2 leads into a few 486 machines, which will help emmensely! YAY!
>
> KSC has traditionally had a Linux server that held student accounts for mail
> and web pages. "Junior Sys Admin" was an independent study for running this
> box. This summer it was used by a couple of people to break into places such as
> Bell Atlantic. The college administration has in absolutely no uncertain terms
> decreed that we may only have a Linux box if it is NOT attached to the outside
> world. This is unfortunately not up for any debate. Linux in a vacum makes
> very little practical sense, but that's what we have to work with. Because
> this makes the "Junior Sys Admin" role almost entirely moot, it will be
> WONDERFUL to keep Linux possibilities here through the LUG.
>
OK, what will help in convincing the administration that ANY system
connected to the outside world can be used to crack? It's unfortunate
that this happened, and I realize their reaction is to try and prevent
future problems, but the reality is that the crackers will now use
other available computers.
My concern here is not to get a Linux box in (much as I would like
it), but to ensure the Keene State admininstration understands that
it's not technology, it's attitude, that creates crackers, and that
their actions have done NOTHING to protect themselves, merely created
an illusion of security. In the long run, it will bite them bigtime
when one of these incidents happens using a "secure" machine (and I
mean when, not if - even if they booted the crackers out, there will
be others). Even worse, unless they take a proactive attitude (which
is not retribution, but education and understanding), they will
themselves get cracked, most likely from the inside. This is a
reality based on real-world statistics - most computer breakins /
crimes happen from the inside, not the outside.
In the long run, they are best served with clear, consistent policy,
systems that implement that policy, and an understanding of what
technology can and can't do (especially with crackers going to the
outside - the only way to prevent it is to cut Keene State off of the
internet and disable all modems, something I doubt they want to do).
> We had a fair mix of people. A few newbies, a few middle-ish (like myself) and
> a few who have spent a lot of time running it, though not professionally.
>
> Here are some of the topics people expressed interest in on the sheet I passed
> out:
> Apache esp writing modules
> Security
> Relational DBs
> Scripting languages, i.e. TCL
> DHCP
> Programming in Linux C/Java/etc
> Sniffers
>
> I'm sure there will be a lot more. Any ideas invited.
>
> Anyway, getting rather long here. I often feel like I spend my entire life
> with the -v switch on.
>
> Our next meeting is 2 weeks from now, Tuesday October 17th at 1:30 pm in
> Science 119 at Keene State. The agenda is to vote on our constitution, elect a
> couple officers, install some distro or other on a machine we can get our hands
> on. Shiloh, our ex-linux admin/current NT admin is setting up an e-mail list
> for us.
>
> Any and all advice/help very, very welcome!
>
> -Marthajo McCarthy
> KSCLUG Chairman
>
> P.S. I just bought a palm pilot- if anyone has any astounding tips on how to
> get it working in Linux, feel free to e-mail me!
>
I use JPilot, although I know of a couple of folks here who use
gnome-pilot. Search on freshmeat, or use helixcode for the
gnome-pilot stuff. Both are easy to set up, the only thing to make
certain of is that the user has access to the serial port. Other than
that, they do a good job of stepping you through setup the first time.
> --
> Martha Jo McCarthy
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (alternate: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) Yeehaa!
>
jeff
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffry Smith Technical Sales Consultant Mission Critical Linux
[EMAIL PROTECTED] phone:603.930.9739 fax:978.446.9470
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thought for today: meatware n.
Synonym for wetware. Less common.
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