April 10, 2003

Many of the engineers at this big computer maker work at home and log in through a gateway server, says a pilot fish who worked there.

"Once authenticated on the gateway server, they could connect to any computer or server on the corporate backbone," fish says.

"Of course, security on the gateway server was paramount -- any hacker being able to log onto the gateway would have a chance at the entire corporate network."

So sysadmins screen all passwords to make sure they're security-worthy, and they run password-cracking programs every day in case a lame password slips through.

Then management decides to outsource the company's systems administration.

"They canned all the sysadmins and hired a big consulting firm to administer the computers and the network," fish says. "The first thing the new company did was raise security awareness. If anybody at any time became aware of any computer security threat, then they were to call the new 24-hour security hot line and report the problem. Security was that vital."

The next thing the outsourcer does is to give each user a new gateway user name and password, based on the user's actual name and office phone number.

"Each user name was first initial and last name," fish reports. "Each password was initials and phone number. For example, user John Smith at phone extension x1234 would have a user name of jsmith and a password js1234. Users were not allowed to change their password from the official one."

Fish is dumbfounded -- anyone who knows the system and has access to the company phone directory can now log in through every employee's gateway account.

"I marched into my manager's office and told him his new gateway user name and password," fish says. "He thought I was psychic until he thought about it for a second."

Fish calls the new security hot line, and he's told the matter will be looked into promptly.

"After not hearing back for a few weeks, I called back," fish says, "and was again assured that it was being looked into."

A few months after that, fish has found a new job and is leaving the company -- and the password security situation still hasn't changed.

"As a standard security precaution, my gateway account and all other network log-ins were immediately revoked," fish says. "This was to prevent embittered former employees from sabotaging the company.

"But since I happened to know a few thousand gateway user names and passwords, it's lucky for them that I wasn't bitter."

April 7, 2003

Lost and Found

User swears he hasn't deleted anything, but the eight years' worth of files that were on his laptop are gone. Support pilot fish can't find them either, and there's no backup. "Sorry," says fish, "but your data is lost." Angry user blocks the door, refusing to let fish leave, until a co-worker walks in and asks what's wrong. After user explains, co-worker laughs, "But that's not your laptop -- yours is over in the corner." Read More

April 8, 2003

Shark Tank: Moral of the ... aw heck, you KNOW the moral

Sales pilot fish at this IT consulting outfit has a list of companies that have bought customer relationship management software, and he's calling them to see if they need help upgrading. Read More

April 9, 2003

Shark Tank: You sexy thing

One day, while this support pilot fish is working with a departmental clerk, she complains that she wastes lots of time typing the same things over and over. Read More

April 11, 2003

Shark Tank: Deja vu all over again

Big hotel. Holiday weekend. Long lines of guests. And the lines are getting longer because the hotel's computer network has slowed to a crawl, says a consultant pilot fish brought in on an emergency basis to fix it. Read More

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