start page | rating of books | rating of authors | reviews | copyrights

Practical UNIX & Internet Security

Practical UNIX & Internet SecuritySearch this book
Previous: 14.5 Modems and UNIX Chapter 14
Telephone Security
Next: 15. UUCP
 

14.6 Additional Security for Modems

With today's telephone systems, if you connect your computer's modem to an outside telephone line, then anybody in the world can call it. In the future, the telephone system might be able to easily prevent people from calling your computer's modem unless you have specifically preauthorized them. Until then, we will have to rely on other mechanisms to protect our modems and computers from intruders.

Although usernames and passwords provide a degree of security, they are not foolproof. Users often pick bad passwords, and even good passwords can occasionally be guessed or discovered by other means.

For this reason, a variety of special kinds of modems have been developed that further protect computers from unauthorized access. These modems are more expensive than traditional modems, but they do provide an added degree of security and trust.


Previous: 14.5 Modems and UNIX Practical UNIX & Internet Security Next: 15. UUCP
14.5 Modems and UNIX Book Index 15. UUCP