Forwarded From: Simon Taplin <stickerat_private> Secure NT Against Snoops and Other Colleagues by Scott Spanbauer If you're like most users, you probably don't think much about who has access to your PC. Do you know who's been reading your mail at night? And what about those performance evaluations and salary recommendations you're working on? Even if you work from home, you may want to keep roommates, spouses, or kids from accidentally deleting your files, e-mail, or personal finance records. Windows NT provides real log-in security, user accounts, and file- access controls. But you don't get all those benefits until you change some settings. The first task is creating a user account for yourself. "What?" you ask, "But I'm already 'Administrator'." And your password is probably password, right? NT creates the Administrator account when you first install, but you don't need most of its sweeping powers every day. To take its place, you can create a user account for yourself in the Users or Power Users group (the latter allows you to share directories and printers with others on the network). To create a new user account, choose: 'Start, Programs, Administrative Tools (Common), User Manager' to open Windows NT's User Manager. Next, select 'User, New User.' Enter a short, descriptive user name and type a password into the Password and Confirm Password fields. Make the password something memorable that you don't need to write down, and the longer it is, the better--Windows NT allows up to 14 characters. Avoid words from the dictionary and repeating characters (like "123123"). Next, uncheck User Must Change Password at Next Logon, and check both User Cannot Change Password and Password Never Expires. The new user account will automatically be part of the Users group; if you'd like to add it to the Power Users group as well, click the Groups button, choose Power Users in the "Not member of" window, click Add, and click OK. Click OK again to create the new user account. While you're at it, rename the Administrator account--and choose a good password--to make it more difficult for anyone to break into it. Renaming the account is straightforward: Simply open User Manager, select the account, choose 'User, Rename,' enter the new name in the "Change To" field, and then click OK. -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Internet Security Institute [www.isi-sec.com]
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