On Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:49:58 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> Anything you can do, the sysadmin can undo. He controls the machine
> you're using. You can't win. [Theoretically at least. In practice you
> can make it too hard to be worth the bother.]

That's the point of security measures - you raise the bar to the point 
that the cost exceeds the value of the data.  Basic security principle.

But my sysadmins don't have access to my machines.  First, I've got two 
laptops; I installed the OS and control the passwords.  I also work from 
home most of the time - 45 miles from the nearest sysadmin.

If I chose to encrypt files on my hard drive using encfs (as I use 
openSUSE) - and indeed I have for some that are sensitive for the company 
(but that they have copies of - source code, for example), they're not 
getting the files from my machine.  They *can* get them from the source 
repository servers, though.

And from our earlier conversation where I blew it on data recovery from 
wiped drives, I'd like to see them undo a secure wipe of the hard drives 
in these laptops.  Or the machines I traded in for the second laptop, for 
that matter (pulled my data off them, wiped the drive so they could 
install a fresh OS for the next user on it).

Jim

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