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On Fri, 26 Jun 2009, Matthew Macdonald-Wallace wrote: > Quoting James Fidell <james@xxxxxxxxxxxx>: > >> tom wrote: >>> On Thu, 2009-06-25 at 19:09 +0100, Paul Sutton wrote: >>>> ... >>>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8117064.stm >>>> --- >>> While I thoroughly approve of the software I would hate to think you >>> could just walk into a school/college and stick in a USB stick and do >>> ANYTHING with it >>> Tom te tom te tom >> >> On the other hand, the logical extension of this is perhaps that you >> could have "your" entire computing environment stored on some sort of >> "ultra-portable" storage and could then use any PC just as a source of >> CPU cycles and connectivity. To a limited extent it's probably possible >> to do it already. >> >> There are obviously environments where it shouldn't be allowed, but in >> the general case being able to walk up to any PC in the world and turn >> it into your personal system just the same as you have it anywhere else >> is a great concept. > > There are a number of Linux Distros out there aimed at "security > professionals" that boot entirely from USB and the only record that > they've been used is that the server has reboted. > > It's a very good way to lift data from a system. > > The only secure computer is ont that is switched off and sealed in concrete. Some (most?) BIOSes offer protection against this - you can configure it to only boot off the internal hard drive, (or PXE/Network) and to need password to get into the BIOS settings to change this (and additionally a password to boot it) I have worked for companies where this was mandatory on laptops. I suspect most people these days don't even bother with the BIOS settings - another dieing art I fear... Not much protection from someone taking the lid off though, but it's a start... Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html