[MU Chem Linux Users] Security and Playing Nice

[Andrew J. Pounds]

Good morning everyone.  We now have several new users of the chemistry 
linux systems and log files indicate that the machine named dock is 
seeing good weekly usage.   Based on things I have witnessed in the last 
24 hours, I need to say a few things regarding best practices for using 
dock with respect to security and "playing nice"...

 1. When I went into the lab this morning dock was logged into an
    account and beside the keyboard was a sheet of paper with the
    account name and password.  This action would not only allow anyone
    to come in and change the password, it also exposed all of the files
    in that user's directories to be deleted or changed.   Not only
    that, if a person did malicious things online they could easily be
    traced back to that account and the owner would we held responsible.
       Take home point:  do not leave passwords lying around and when
    you are done log off to protect the account and the system
 2. If you do find that you need to work on dock for an extended period
    of time or you have a calculation that needs to continue to run
    while you are away then please lock the screen.   Use screen locking
    judiciously.  Once you lock the screen you have blocked all other
    users from using dock.

   Let me know if you have any questions.  I am glad that you all have 
this resource to use; let's keep it safe.  I am on the hook to the 
University for the security of our network in the department.


-- 
Andrew J. Pounds, Ph.D.  (pounds_aj at mercer.edu)
Professor of Chemistry and Computer Science
Mercer University,  Macon, GA 31207   (478) 301-5627
http://faculty.mercer.edu/pounds_aj

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