Security

[theclave]

I know linux is secure, but I was wondering - if my Hard Drive was stolen, and put into another linux machine and mounted - could my files be accessed by the root on that machine?

just idle curiosity.

[x]

Yes.
If you have physical access to a computer (or just to the disk), I don't know of anything that can stop you from accessing the files - no matter of OS.
I was also curious, I installed WinNT twice + 2 different Linux's.
As root/administrator I can do anything with any file (as long as OS understands the filesystem.)

[prince_kenshi]

Oh trust me, if you have file encryption, another machine can't read your files. I had some of my files encrypted in Windows 2000 and had to reinstall. I had saved the encryption key on a floppy but for some reason it didn't work. Basically there wasn't a chance in hell of me getting the data back and I had to delete it all. I believe I've heard of file encryption for Linux but I can't tell you anything about it. If you're worried about this security option, I'd suggest you do some research on it. Just be warned by one who knows that encryption can be bad.

[Tyr-7BE]

The choice of whether or not to use encryption depends on how sensitive your data is. Yes, if it's stolen then someone will need to decrypt your data, and unless they have use of mass distributed computing/supercomputers, it will take YEARS to crack a good encryption scheme. I'm looking forward to the day Quantum computing debuts...a whole new computing world :) I mention it because it's relevant to encryption...it will make encryption virtually useless.

[Pierre Lambion]

He Tyr-7BE, did you read the nice Login article about Quantum computing?


You are from Belgium?

P.