This article is rated Stub-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Computer security: Computing This article is within the scope of WikiProject Computer security, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of computer security on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Computer securityWikipedia:WikiProject Computer securityTemplate:WikiProject Computer securityComputer security ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by WikiProject Computing. Things you can help WikiProject Computer security with: Article alerts are available, updated by AAlertBot. More information... Review importance and quality of existing articles Identify categories related to Computer Security Tag related articles Identify articles for creation (see also: Article requests) Identify articles for improvement Create the Project Navigation Box including lists of adopted articles, requested articles, reviewed articles, etc. Find editors who have shown interest in this subject and ask them to take a look here.

we need to know if there are special machine requirements for these computers. How is it secure not for the user but for the machine itself to be exposed in a public place. are there any different options in order to chose different machines? (talk) 07:14, 18 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]

Some more historical perspective is needed here. Not all public access computer centers depended on 'locking down' the PC or workstation, since not all PC operating systems have a common vulnerability set. A 'guest' account on a modern Linux system is typically more secure than a regular user login on a Windows XP Home system, for example.

In the old days of public access computer networks with terminals (the 1970s), there was no need to lock down the access devices, they were dumb terminals.

Other networks take a decidedly activist view against security as the central concept, since it's easy to wipe and reinstall a PC device.

Athena workstations at MIT, for example, published the root password, since it had little bearing on network security, and to remove the challenge of obtaining it.

^[1]

(ref not working - ref details follow

cite web|url=www.usenix.org/event/lisa98/full_papers/bushnell/bushnell.pdf|title=Anatomy of an Athena Workstation|last=Bushnell|first=Thomas |coauthors=Ramm|date=12/6/1998|pages=4|language=english|accessdate=2008-12-07