The UNIX system UNIX operating system security

Computing systems that are easy to access and that facilitate communication with other systems are by their nature difficult to secure. Most often, though, the level of security that is actually achieved is far below what it could be. This is due to many factors, the most important of which are the knowledge and attitudes of the administrators and users of such systems. We discuss here some of the security hazards of the UNIX™ operating system, and we suggest ways to protect against them, in the hope that an educated community of users will lead to a level of protection that is stronger, but far more importantly, that represents a reasonable and thoughtful balance between security and ease of use of the system. We will not construct parallel examples for other systems, but we encourage readers to do so for themselves.