Re: Does Security matter at all?

[Robert Bihlmeyer <robbe@orcus.priv.at>]

Ari Makela <hauva@iki.fi> writes:

> Why? There's absolutely no way to secure a system when untrusted
> people have physical access to the computer.

While this is ultimately true, one can make it quite hard for an
attacker to break into the system undetectably. The unpreventable
break-ins all need at least one power-cycle, which is usually hard to
hide. Slipping in a floppy and executing /mnt/floppy/rootshell costs
only 5 seconds, and is quite stealthy.

> It's of no use to lock you doors when you have a tank sized hole in
> your wall. 

In your reasoning, nobody should lock their door, since a robber that
can come near the house could always break down the wall. You ignore
that one action will put the bad guy in more risk than the other.

-- 
Robbe