Re: Security, Password Protected Computer

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John Persico wrote:
> Forgive me for my lack of knowledge on this issue, but...
>
> How secure is an XP Home Edition machine that has one user
> with forced login and password protection (meaning, turning
> the computer on sends it to the login screen, there's only
> one account, and it's password protected).
>
> By secure, I mean, can anyone access that computer other
> than the user who knows the password? Can anyone else read,
> access, copy, or otherwise alter files on the machine? I
> guess I'm wondering if there's some backdoor way that
> someone could get into my machine (say, through a command
> line interface or something), by bypassing the XP login.
> Essentially, I want to be the only one who can use my
> computer (or see anything on it).

As the other OPs have stated if other people have physical access to
your machine there are ways and means (Bootable CDs, Linux diskettes
etc) that will enable people to remove the passwords used.

If you want people not to be able to see your data then use some form
of encryption such as the NTFS encryption built into XP, BUT, and a
very BIG BUT, remember to create a Recovery Agent and back up your
encryption keys and certificates to some form of external storage
because if you loose your keys your data is gone for good.

For more details on XP encryption methods enter XP encryption in the
search bar at http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx

.

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