Security implications ?

["Mike Lewis" <cajun cajuninc com>]

The default perms on /var/log/messages are:

-rw-------   1 root     root       162393 Jan 30 19:58 /var/log/messages
-rw-------   1 root     root      4198458 Jan 30 04:02 /var/log/messages.1
-rw-------   1 root     root       612433 Jan 23 03:40 /var/log/messages.2


What would be the security implications of changing the perms to 644 ?  What
I'd like to do is tail my log without having to su.  Is there a better way ?

Thanks,
Mike