GNU, security, and RMS

[Michael J. Chinni, SMCAR-CCS-E]

In article <2322 at thor.acc.stolaf.edu> mike at stolaf.edu writes:
>
>(2) There should not be security among the users of a computer system.
>    The principal use I have seen security put to has been the self-
>    aggrandizement of system administrators at the expense of the
>    user community.  (I agree that in some situations it is reasonable
>    to have security to keep out outsiders, though.)

I disagree.  Maybe in a education environment no security may be okay, but I
can't see this in a commercial/governmental environment.  No security on the
computer is similar to allowing anyone to come into your office and look at
anything they please, and also to allow them to change anything they please. I
doubt if many people would like this.

In case someone says: "Protect what you want protected but don't force
protection on everyone", I say "Protect user's work from everyone else (root
obviously excepted) and inform them as to how to lessen this if they want". 
Protection from root should not be needed. If a sys. admin. is not responsible
enough to not go snooping, then they should not be allowed to have root
privileges.

In closing, I feel that security should NOT be decided on a VENDOR level, but
on a local sys. admin. level based upon the needs/requirements of his/her/thier
system(s).

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			    Michael J. Chinni
      Chief Scientist, Simulation Techniques and Workplace Automation Team
	 US Army Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center
 User to skeleton sitting at cobweb   () Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey  
    and dust covered workstation      () ARPA: mchinni at pica.army.mil
      "System been down long?"        () UUCP: ...!uunet!pica.army.mil!mchinni
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