On Wednesday 29 October 2008 16:41:36 Almir Karic wrote:
quoted text
> On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 04:14:22PM -0400, Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
> > I'll be setting up a new box for the house and I want to use OpenBSD for
> > it, both for its security and since it will be an older box it will run
> > better than with Debian.
> >
> > Roles:
> >
> > main firewall for dialup internet access.
> > fetchmail and sendmail to ISP smarthost
> > other simple stuff (have another box for insecure stuff like watching
> > 	videos, surfing the net with javascript and flash).
> >
> >
> > We've moved and now our main security threat is physical security.  We
> > don't want the data on the computer (i.e. in the /home directories) to
> > be readable if someone steals the box.
>
> if someone knowledgeable enough has physical access to the running box, you
> can't keep the data private.

Thats true, but you can make it awfully hard to get the data.  I know
of someone who put his computer in a gun closet, which is a tall metal
cabinet weighing many hundreds of pounds, secured with bolts inside
the case to the cement wall in the basement.  Could you get it?  Sure:
with enough effort and possibly explosives.

You can secure a computer pretty well.  Just think heavy and bolted
to a wall.

--STeve Andre'