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Two Log In on laptop- Protected?

Discussion in 'Security and Privacy' started by rondom, 2005/12/06.

  1. 2005/12/06
    rondom

    rondom Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I have a laptop with 2 log in and I was curious if my computer was stolen, could the thief get into the software without a log in password?
     
    rondom,
    #1
  2. 2005/12/06
    Newt

    Newt Inactive

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    Almost certainly yes.

    You don't say what OS but if it's 9x/ME you have pretty much zero protection. Takes about 6 seconds to get into one of those.

    For anyone with physical access to the PC such as a thief would have, there are a number of 'password cracking' programs that could be used although if you have a strong password (15+ characters, combination of alpha and numeric characters, mix of upper & lower case letters, not any words) it could take a long while.

    More detailed information in the article http://labmice.techtarget.com/articles/laptopsecurity.htm
     
    Newt,
    #2


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  4. 2005/12/06
    rondom

    rondom Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I was afraid of that. I have windows XP. Are there any other protective measures other that the long password?
     
    rondom,
    #3
  5. 2005/12/07
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    PeteC,
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  6. 2005/12/08
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    a thief could also very easily:
    1. pull out the drive & connect it to another computer & have access to ALL files, even encrypted ones.
    2. boot the laptop using a linux cdrom w/ a free program that can be used to change the administrator password, and after that, decrypt the files.

    There is no such thing as 100% secure. But best to take measures to make it as difficult as possible for the criminal if have sensitive info on a comp.
     
    TonyT,
    #5

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