Locking user accounts

Okay, you’ve just seen how to have Linux automatically lock user accounts that are under attack. There will also be times when you’ll want manually lock out user accounts. Let’s look at a few examples:

• When a user goes on vacation and you want to ensure that nobody monkeys around with that user’s account while he or she is gone
• When a user is under investigation for questionable activities
• When a user leaves the company

With regard to the last point, you may be asking yourself, Why can’t we just delete the accounts of people who are no longer working here? And, you certainly can, easily enough. However, before you do so, you’ll need to check with your local laws to make sure that you don’t get yourself into deep trouble. Here in the United States, for example, we have the Sarbanes-Oxley law, which restricts what files publicly traded companies can delete from their computers. If...