Re: Security Considerations for Genera 8.0

[Mabry Tyson <TYSON@WARBUCKS.AI.SRI.COM>]

Re: locking the keyboard and mouse in a drawer to prevent access.  I
have also suggested (in a note that didn't go to SLUG) that JPL consider
putting lock boxes on the hirose cable that the Symbolics monitors are
connected to.  In that same note I said that if you don't have physical
security then you don't have security.

In my opinion, having the ethernet cable available to anyone who walks
by (on Suns, MacIvories, PCs, etc) in an unsecure environment is as big
a security problem as having a console line available for someone to
plug into.  I'm not going to include in a message that is broadcast to
so many people the various things you can do once you get on a local
cable.  I think we all know some of the things that can be done to a
Symbolics.  (Un)rest assured, there are just as many things you can do to
Suns from a hostile host on the same network.  (After all, if you couldn't
why would those with Suns worry about a Symbolics machine on the same
network?)

When "the network is the computer", you'd better spend as much energy
protecting the network as the computer!  

When was the last time you checked to make sure there were no unwanted
hosts on your network?  (And would you have caught one if he was only on
for 15 minutes?)  No, we don't have lock boxes on our transceiver cables,
our hirose cables, or our keyboards.  We do have security at the doors
to our building...  (And of course, we have no classified information on
any computer outside of a secured tank.)