At every site that I worked at where I had the authority to do so, I 

would modify the message catalog to replace the 'helpful' logon messages 

with the text **invalid** and nothing else. If the person trying to 

logon to your system is authorised then they should know how to do it.



As a previous system manager once told me, "never give a sucker an even 

break" (that was the polite version of what she said), and I agreed with 

her.



On 23/02/2024 18:46, Tracy Johnson wrote:

> We have all (most of us anyway) been drilled by the conventional 

> wisdom of not having a helpful log on prompt.

>

> In other words the typical log on colon prompt (:).

>

> Or even my EMPIRE machine's EMPIRECLASSIC: prompt.

>

> So I get hundreds of attempted log ons a day.  None of them successful 

> by the way.  They are either attempting something linux, windows, or 

> apple with single word users.  With honorable mention to the SSH 

> attempts that my HP3000 doesn't even understand.

>

> And at best, I have three or four players on my EMPIRE game, ever.  

> (And that's because they know how to enter a HELLO.)

>

> But anyway for the sake of argument, suppose I changed my 

> EMPIRECLASSIC: prompt to read:

>

> ENTER: HELLO USER.GAMES

>

> Then they'll see the possible log ons that I allow.  Now that would be 

> against the conventional wisdom of allowing a "helpful" log on 

> prompt.  (As written in the Security/3000 manual.)

>

> What of it?  Do I want the random hackers to log into my games?

>





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