The sys admin’s daily grind: login mail

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Article from Issue 117/2010
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Charly often gets suggestions and ideas for his column at community get-togethers. Last week, he picked up a tip for an early warning system that quickly secures login attempts.

Some servers I don’t log in to for weeks on end. On machines like this, the danger of intruders being able to log in without my noticing is fairly high. And if attackers do manage to crack open a victim’s computer, they will do everything they can to cover their tracks. This includes removing all traces of the login from the logs, which makes it more or less impossible to ascertain the exact time of the attack and – what’s more important – the attacker’s IP.

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