Hack 1 Lock Others Out of Your Computer 
Of course,
the opposite of a
password that keeps
you out of your system is a password that keeps
others out of your system. The BIOS in some PCs
may provide no password protection at all, a single password that
controls access to BIOS setup and allows the system to
boot up, or two
passwords—one for access to BIOS setup (a Setup or Supervisor
password) and bootup, and the other to control access to booting up
only (a User or Boot password). To set a password for your system,
look in the setup menus for security settings, as shown in Figure 1-1.
A
User or Boot
password keeps
the system from booting up—a measure of intrusion and system
hacking protection. A System or Supervisor password keeps
lurkers out of your BIOS settings, and keeps them from changing the
User/Boot password.
If you are going to set a User or Boot password, be sure you also set
a Setup or Supervisor password so the BIOS settings and boot password
cannot be changed and so someone cannot set a Supervisor password to
keep you out of the system, requiring you to bypass the BIOS password
[Hack #2]. Because
there is a back door, the only way to prevent attackers from
circumventing the password is to use a case that can be locked shut
with a key or a locking cable.
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