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You should change the motd anyway...
Authored by: imacusr on Aug 15, '02 12:25:13PM
if you work at a government site. this is what our security page at NIH has to say about them:
The NIH CIO issues the following NIH policy regarding warning banner use and management. Employee "sign-on warning banners" must be posted at all logon points to Government computers and systems where technically practical. Further, this policy must be included in all orientation materials for new/transferring users. The OGC had advised that, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), such banners are not legally required but may facilitate prosecution of intruders to a computer network by obtaining consent for keystroke monitoring; DOJ recommends that a banner appear whenever an employee logs onto an agency computer. This recommendation has been strengthened based on recent advice from the Office of Inspector General that "prosecution of employees and contractors for misuse of government computers may be warranted providing the government can prove that the employee or contractor's job performance suffered as a result of their activities and the employee or contractor was advised of the proper uses of the computer....use of a properly placed sign-on warning would suffice as proper advisement." In addition to potential legal considerations, the use of banners is a good management and security practice. It is important that staff clearly understand that use of government computers is subject to monitoring, and that there can be no expectation of personal privacy.
My understanding is that even if your computer is your own, you should at least remove the word "welcome"; that way, you have an extra legal backup if you decide to prosecute somebody for hacking your machine.

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You should change the motd anyway...
Authored by: mervTormel on Aug 15, '02 01:02:38PM

yep. imacusr's got the skinny here. it is a shame we have become such a litigous society, but that is the case. if you have a welcome in your motd, consider any legal recourse for user transgressions after login a dead end.

you need a stern warning, and a method for guaranteeing that the motd is cat'd to every login even if there is a ~/.hushlogin...

put the following in all the login startup scriptage in /etc/

cat /etc/motd

example /etc/motd :

___________________________________________________

Unauthorized Access Is Strictly Prohibited.

Your activity is being logged. You have been warned.

If you are here by mistake, type exit now.

____________________________________________________



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You should change the motd anyway...
Authored by: VEGx on Aug 16, '02 02:18:26PM

get a life :)



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You should change the motd anyway...
Authored by: BraindeadMac on Aug 15, '02 05:48:04PM

Oh give me a ****ing break. Change the MOTD to something you enjoy if you want.



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You should change the motd anyway...
Authored by: maclaxguy on Aug 18, '02 06:28:32PM

Amen, man. A - ****ing - men



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