[Linux-aus] Sam did better with this one

[Leon Brooks]

    http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/02/1056825450368.html

    Few people decide on their careers until they are well into
    their teens. Russell Coker is an exception. When he built
    his first computer, a TEC-1, from a kit, at the age of 11,
    he consciously made a career decision as well - he would be
    working in that field. 

    However, the Melbourne-based developer and sysadmin probably
    never figured that his name would one day end up on the
    website of America's National Security Agency, /the/
    cryptologic organisation.

    [... sorry for this detour into MS-land but I found it highly
    amusing and suspect that many of you will too ...]

    I initially removed Windows 3.0 from my computer when a
    Microsoft representative told me that it was easier for
    them to train people to work around bugs in their software
    than to fix them. I deplore this attitude and I
    immediately went home, removed Windows from my computer,
    removed Windows file areas from my BBS, and have had as
    little as possible to do with Microsoft software ever
    since.

    [...]

    I have on many occasions put SE Linux "play" machines on
    the net with a public root password. (The details are
    here [http://www.coker.com.au/selinux/]). Lots of people
    have tried to break them for fun. Several configuration
    errors were discovered in the early days, mainly due to
    the fact that the earlier policy was not designed to be
    used on a machine with public root access. The use of
    such machines has resulted in a stronger security
    policy, so if someone gains unauthorised root access on
    a SE Linux machine they won't be able to do anything
    dangerous (and their attempts to damage the machine
    will be logged clearly).

Cheers; Leon

-- 
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Committee Member, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/            Committee Member, Linux Australia