[Discuss] can one safely login multiple times to the same user on a modern Linux desktop?

[richard.pieri at gmail.com (Rich Pieri)]

To elaborate a bit, Project Athena doesn't use encrypted home
directories but it does use Kerberos and AFS to provide a degree of
security. Even so, there is a formal policy of 20 minutes away from a
workstation:

> If you are using a workstation in one of the Athena clusters and
> intend to keep using it but must leave it briefly unattended, you
> must limit your absence to 20 minutes or less and signal your
> situation to other users by taking one of the following actions:

and

> If you are gone longer than twenty minutes or leave a workstation
> without a note or a valid countdown screensaver running, another user
> who needs a workstation is entitled to log you out or reboot the
> machine to make that machine available.

http://ist.mit.edu/athena/olh/rules#rule_A6

I manage a small AFS cell based on the Project Athena design. Each user
in my cell typically has his or her own workstation running Scientific
Linux. Most of these are in shared office/laboratory spaces where
anyone in a given group has physical access to other group members'
workstations.

-- 
Rich P.