Thread View: net.unix
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Started by David M. Brown
Thu, 30 Oct 1986 19:50
Re: Looking through other users' (unprotected) files
Author: David M. Brown
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1986 19:50
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1986 19:50
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--text follows this line-- [] > It is only prudent to use whatever techniques are > available to you to secure your files from unauthorized > access. However, your failure to do so does not imply > that you are granting permission to others to use them. > Common courtesy requires that you do not use other > people's property without their express permission, > that you do not read their mail even if it is not > locked up, and that you do not poke around in their > files unless they explicitly tell you it is all right > to do so. This whole debate is caused by the clash between two different value systems. One system is described above (keywords: "common courtesy"). The other has been espoused by others on the net (as well as myself), and goes sort of like this: "If you set your permissions, you are permitting." At the risk of repeating myself, the use of shared resources implies a political situation. Politics may be resolved with *force*, *law*, or *convention*. Force usually works, but is undesirable and socially unacceptable. Law seldom achieves it ends in the face of determined opposition, especially when the opposition sees the law as a challenge. Therefore, convention (read: "value system") is the usual choice. Every site is free to choose its own conventions. You pick yours and we'll pick ours. On our site, it is acceptable to access anything which you can access. Of course, if we get some real losers, that may have to change. dmb@morgoth Dave Brown GZA 320 Needham St. Newton Upper Falls, MA 02164 (617) 969-0050 #include '/usr/local/disclaimer'
Re: Looking through other users' (unprotected) files
Author: Bob Page
Date: Sat, 01 Nov 1986 18:02
Date: Sat, 01 Nov 1986 18:02
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One (academic) installation I know of has the philosophy: If it's not worth making public, it's not worth having on the system. I agree in principle; in practice it's tough to enforce. User's can adopt their own philosophies, System Managers must adopt everyone's philosophies. As a (multi-)System Manager, I respect people's assumed rights (although I do not always agree with them) of privacy, not going any further than `grep'. People must be re-educated to what ``Multi User System'' means. If you have _personal_ files you don't want people to see, put them on a _personal_ computer. Use your own disk space, not your organization's. You might say, ``what about cheating on class assignments, not everybody has an amiga/mac/ibmpc'' ... you can't stop cheating even if you disable world read access, remove mail, printers, and most of what makes a multi-user system usable. Besides, cheating can be considered information-gathering, and isn't this the Information Age? :-) Please note that the University of Lowell and the Massachusetts Board of Regents may not (probably don't!) agree with me. In fact, there's a statewide policy of 'Electronic Data Security' or somesuch that is in my job description to police. And no, you can't have an account. :-) ..Bob -- UUCP: wanginst!ulowell!page Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept VOX: +1 617 452 5000 x2976 Lowell MA 01854 USA
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