RE: Password security

From: Ryan Thompson (ryan@sasknow.com)
Date: 06/19/02 

Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 23:04:44 -0600 (CST)
From: Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com>
To: Eric F Crist <ecrist@adtechintegrated.com>

Hi Eric,

Eric F Crist wrote to 'Ryan Thompson' and freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG:

> Have you explored the idea of biometrics?

Yes. Bad idea. I knew someone would suggest that. My original post was
too long already to include biometrics, so, since you asked, here it
is. :-)

> It requires a piece of hardware on each computer that is going to
> access the network, but the way you're making your security
> requirements sound, the security benefit is worth the cost.

Depending on the metric somewhat, collecting biometrics on insecure
systems is a serious security risk. Hardware costs aside (about 20
terminals, a few of which are home systems not even owned by the
company), it's far too easy to replay biometrics if the end system
isn't secure... and, last time I checked, most of my employees had
only 10 fingers each. Once those are gone, what then? Eyeballs? :-)
So, on a lot of levels, biometrics are not an option.

So, let's stick with password security for now. :-)

> Eric F Crist
> President/Sys Admin
> AdTech Integrated Systems, Inc
> http://www.adtechintegrated.com 

-- 
  Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com>
  SaskNow Technologies - http://www.sasknow.com
  901 1st Avenue North - Saskatoon, SK - S7K 1Y4
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