Passwords

[Vince]

I have three user accts. on my computer.Mine,which has
admin. rights,my wife and my son.Mine is the only one
password protected.My question is:should the other two
accts. be password protected? They are limited accts,But I
was wondering if they should be password protected for
security reasons.And if they are password protected do I
still have access beings that I have admin. rights,or do I
need to know their passwords ?
Thanks,Vince

 

[Kevin]

Security analysis is a risk vs. return proposition. Is a
machine that contains user accounts without passwords a
security risk? Sure. But what is the threat? Is the
machine in an Internet cafe, a public kiosk, or behind the
locked doors of your home.

What do you hope to acheive by buttoning down their
passwords? Protecting your files? Or protecting theirs?

If you give them passwords their files can be locked down.
But an administrator can take ownership or create a group
to allow access permissions and rights.

A good system administrator will tell you to make policies
as unrestrictive as possible to allow people to accomplish
the task at hand. XP (and Windows 2003 Server) will allow
very granular control, right down to the file. But what is
the payoff, risk, and reward.

Does that help?