Unix userid conventions

[arnold at apollo.UUCP]

In article <4788 at brl-adm.ARPA> MARSELLE%gmr.com at RELAY.CS.NET writes:
>Until recently, userids on the  Suns  consisted  of  users'  last
>names.   Our IBM systems use userids which are unique 6-character
>alphanumeric codes obtained by taking a  user's  Social  Security
>Number  base  36 (or something like that).  As far as the user is
>concerned, it's a random userid (e.g. QZX1RS).  In  the  interest
>of  security. the powers that be have decided to use this type of
>userid on the Sun system.

How about the following: by using your Soc Sec # as your login id,
everyone on the system knows everyone else's Soc Sec #.  This is pretty
absurd.  SSN's are a little too useful for accessing info about people
to make them public.  I sure wouldn't want my SSN to be widely known --
do you?  Suggest using bank account #s instead -- that, at least, is
only *one* of the peices of info generally available using the SSN.
See how they react to *that* suggestion.

This is all in addition to the fact that ugly login names are no
deterrent whatsoever.  My login name is very publicly known -- every
time I post to usenet thousands of people can see it.  If I want anyone
to send me mail *they* get my login name.  *Passwords* are the point of
security, and many techniques are already available to deal with that.

		Ken Arnold
		uucp address: apollo!<censored for security reasons>