One of my areas of expertise is in security systems; however it is
widely known that nay system - even that of RBBS - is infallable.

Criminal Tresspass is often times used as grounds for taking legal
action against persons who violate computer systems (and their
owners). However, in order to tresspass there has to be an effort
made on the owner's part to warn the perpetrator that (s)he is not
welcomed.

Some courts that have been presented with computer crimes have
upheld that by merely asking for a users name and password, you
are stating that to be allowed access to a system you must be
authorized. Furthermore a few judges ruled that anyone who used
an account that does not belong to them, in order to gain access
to a computer system, has engaged in "breaking and entering". 

Both of these offenses ("crimminal tresspassing" and "breaking and
entering") can be used against a perpertrator to regain any financial
losses that might have been incurred.

So why write this?

There have also been cases where the judge ruled that user names and
passwords does not adequately warn people that they are not welcomed.

In order to protect myself against any problems, I have added the
following lines to my RBBS-PC.BAS source code:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
816 IF NOT ZNewUser THEN _
       CALL QuickTPut1 ("Times On:" + STR$(ZTimesLoggedOn) + _
                 "Last On:" + PrevLastOn$)
    IF NOT ZConfMode AND NOT ZSubboard THEN _                        ' SG042801  
       IF ZUserSecLevel >= ZSysOpSecLevel THEN _
         ZOutTxt$ = ZFG4$ + "Unauthorized use of this account constitutes " + _  ' SG042801
             ZFG5$ + "CRIMINAL TRESSPASS" : _                        ' SG042801
         CALL QUickTPut1 (ZOutTxt$) : _                              ' SG042801
         ZOutTxt$ = ZFG2$ + "All violators will be prosecuted to the " + _   ' SG042801
             "fullest extent of the law!" : _                        ' SG042801
         CALL QuickTPut1 (ZOutTxt$)                                  ' SG042801
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This will give fair warning to anyone with SysOp security or higher -
anyone else doesn't need it since they can do no extensive damage with 
normal use of the system.

(I use ZFG5$, which is available ONLY if you use the COLR173C merge. If you
 did not add the merge, make the following substitutions:
                                                         ZFG1$ for ZFG4$
                                                         ZFG2$ for ZFG5$
                                                         ZFG4$ for ZFG2$)

And as always, there is NO WARRANTY of any sort for use of these changes!

Steven Greenfield
SMP Systems
P.O.Box 635
Merrick, NY 11566
BBS: (516) 785-1557