Re: XP secure during repair?

From: Lang Sugero (81GPZlciJffS_at_green.scpmg.com)
Date: 07/02/04 

Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 21:41:09 +0100

relic wrote:
| D.Currie wrote:
|| "Mike" <no_reply@please.com> wrote in message
|| news:cc47n7$3on$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...
||| Burp* wrote:
|||| Mike spewed out this bit, and i'll scatter a few bits myself :
||||
||||| XP Home, file system NTFS.
|||||
||||| XP is more secure than 98 but are the login passwords truly
||||| secure. I have 4 passworded accounts - is it true that without the
||||| password these accounts are not accessible. If I take my PC in for
||||| hardware repair is there no way for the technician to access my
||||| hardrive and its data beyond the login screen. No secret admin
||||| account or account entrance that is built in or could they run
||||| another OS from the cd drive such as DOS or Linux and access the
||||| drive information that way or another way I have not considered. I
||||| ask this because it just occurs to me how much private and
||||| personal information I have on my hardrive should it need repair.
||||| Thanks.
||||
|||| There are programs, and ways to extract your passwords and gain
|||| access to your porn.
|||
||| Thanks for quick response but I was genuine. It is not porn that
||| concerns me so much as notes from my wife and photographs of my
||| children that are very personal and my own notes and journal and
||| emails and financial details.
|||
||| --
||| Regards
|||
|||
|| I repair computers for a living, and I can tell you that I personally
|| don't care what's on your computer, and I'm not going to spend my
|| working time reading your documents. I want to do the repair and get
|| the computer off the bench as quickly as possible.
||
|| On the other hand, there aren't a whole lot of computer repairs I'm
|| going to be able to do without access to at least one administrator
|| account. If I install hardware, I'm going to have to install drivers
|| and make sure it works. If it's a software problem, then I'm sure I'm
|| going to have to access an account, and after that, I need to access
|| the problematic program. So, yes, if you say you can't read your
|| email, I need access to your email account, and I'm going to open a
|| couple of emails. But even at that, I try to avoid actually reading
|| the content. I open them to see that they do open, then I move on. I
|| don't care what spam you get, or what Aunt Sally's goiter is up to
|| these days.
||
|| Even if it's something like a power supply replacement, it's nice to
|| be able to get into Windows and make sure nothing else got fried in
|| the meantime. Otherwise I'm going to get a call that says, "Now my
|| modem doesn't work!" or something like that.
||
|| If you don't give me access to an account, and I need it, either I'm
|| going to call and ask for the password, or I'm going to get in
|| another way so I can finish the repair. I'd tell you that I got into
|| the computer, though. It's not like I'm sneaking around. Most people
|| leave their computers so unsecured that it's simple to get in without
|| resorting anything fancy.
||
|| Of course, the curiousness of the repair folks is going to depend on
|| who they are. If you take the computer to a shop where there are a
|| dozen teenage guys who get paid by the hour, they might be interested
|| in what music you have or what photos. I doubt anyone cares to read
|| your tax documents unless they know you and want to see if you really
|| can afford that BMW. Otherwise, it's irrelevant data. "Some guy who
|| brought his computer in made $45 thou last year!" Unless they know
|| you, who cares?
||
|| If you have things that you don't want other people to see, your best
|| bet is to keep them off of your computer. Put them on CDs or a
|| removable/external drive. Then you don't need to worry about taking
|| the computer for repairs. Then you just need to worry about security
|| issues when the computer is in your house.
|
|
| You had me believing you until you said you didn't care what Aunt
| Sally's goiter was up to these days. *** man, I don't know
| /anybody/ that doesn't care about that.

oi 

-- 
For my own part, I have never had a thought which I could not set down
in words with even more distinctness than that with which I conceived
it. There is, however, a class of fancies of exquisite delicacy which
are not thoughts, and to which as yet I have found it absolutely
impossible to adapt to language. These fancies arise in the soul, alas
how rarely. Only at epochs of most intense tranquillity, when the
bodily and mental health are in perfection. And at those weird points
of time, where the confines of the waking world blend with the world of
dreams. And so I captured this fancy, where all that we see, or seem,
is but a dream within a dream.