Re: emacspeak and unprivileged accounts

[Jude DaShiell <dashiell@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Doug, I have emacspeak now working on root and an unprivileged account.
If I mess something up in my unprivileged account, it doesn't take the
system down permanently.  On the other hand, root could very well destroy an
entire installation.  Another reason not to run as root especially when on
line is that as an unprivileged user your computer is more difficult to
hack.  Exploits exist that can enable hackers to hack your computer easily
if you run as root and they're well-known in the hacker community.  Before I
had emacspeak on this system I had speakup on it and was running as root on
a system that hadn't been appropriately hardened for internet use.  nfs
among other doors was wide open and an amateur hacker put linsniffer on my
system.  I say amateur because I discovered it and because linsniffer was
installed incorrectly and for that reason became disruptive deleting much
email repeatedly while I was in the inbox reading it with pine.  Now a real
cracker that knew what they were doing would not have had linux complain on
boot up that linsniffer couldn't run or destroy any email.  All linsniffer
is supposed to do is sniff out and collect user names and passwords from
your system and any system you access.
Near where I live we have lots of Chinese hackers hacking people's
computers.  They don't care if it's corporate or a home computer they just
hack.  My neighbor caught one of them on her computer interestingly with
windows running by examining the properties of the connection.  Got the
name, password, and origination point on the internet with complete email
address the hacker was using.  I hope I can find something that will work as
well with any connections I get on the linux machine using linux and
emacspeak in text mode.  Actually, I'd like to have a log made of any of
that if I leave the computer on and unattended for later examination too.

Jude <dashiell@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Net-Tamer V 1.13 Beta - Registered

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