RE: [Thinkpad] Thinkpad Hard Drive Passwords

As I read through the messages in the thread, I am not exactly in the same
boat. I am a personal user of a Thinkpad. At work, I am a simple worker of
many. Security is important, but absolute? I am not in charge of medical
records or corporate secrets. However, in these discussions, I think of the
days when security meant you stored your documents in a folder in some
reinforced steel attaché case with a combination lock. Considered strong,
these still could get broken into. Today, we have gone nuts trying to
protect data. We are now at the point where I believe we are paralyzed as a
nation protecting every ounce of territory, data- whatever with white
knuckles. Do we really need to?

With all this security we have put upon ourselves - do we really know that
that security will be there when we REALLY need it? There are holes in
everything, if there weren't we humans would never be safe from the
mechanisms we create.

Nothing beat individual responsibility and vigilances. Regarding a laptop:
if you can't lock it down, don't store sensitive data on it. Otherwise you
must accept the risk of others gaining access to it. Is this too
simplistic? Perhaps. But it is a security system you are 100% in control
of and one that can work. If I have files I want to protect on my laptop, I
will rename them a *.dll file and store it in plain sight.

Ever read Tsung Zu? (I hope I have the spelling right)

George

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Graham [mailto:grahamj@virtue.cx]
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 6:06 AM
To: Colgrove, George
Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] Thinkpad Hard Drive Passwords

On Tue, Feb 03, 2004 at 08:22:53AM -0500, Colgrove, George wrote:
> To add one more level to what Scott said. You as the password keeper, may
> simply forget the password! Today for my job, we have to change our
> password every 90 days,

You don't happen to be working on an S series mainframe are you? :)
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Received on Tue Feb 3 10:47:06 2004