MODEM ON THE DESK EARNS A PINK SLIP AT SUN Citing users with dial-up Internet access as the No. 2 biggest security risk after internal hacking, Sun Microsystems has made it a firing offense to have a modem on the desk. Many crackers use a technique called "war dialing" in which their computer tries hundreds or even thousands of phone numbers in search of an idle modem. If that PC's owner is not using the machine, the cracker can effectively "capture" the PC, and gain access to the network it's connected to. If a senior manager at Sun discovers an infraction, that employee is "gone the same day," says one of Sun's security managers. "Any dial-up line is a tremendous risk." (Network Week 18 Mar 98) [Just because a user doesn't actively use the computer does NOT make it automatically vulnerable. The user must be running some kind of software that allows dialin access, and control over the machine in the first place.]