Living on a prayer

[mattm04]

I get a email from a new staff member requesting internet access on their PC a few days ago. I know we have not given them a PC for several reasons, mainly the previous person never wanted one and lack of budget in the new hardware account. I assume it is their personal laptop and inform them how to connect to our public WiFi. No. They have a PC sittin on a desk with all sort sorts of files on it.

I go to investigate. I find a G3 Mac Tower running OS 8.5. I start it up and of course it boots right up and has no passwords on it. I look around. It has thousand of files on it containing critical data in a AppleWorks data base among other word and AppleWorks files. Crap.

I eventually track down the reason for this. It was purchased new YEARS ago. It was replaced and supposed to be recycled but somehow got diverted. I also find the person responsible for it. I discuss the reason for it. Apparently it is frequent used to hold data for several mission critical areas. Crap. Crap. I ask about backups. Well it is backed up, sometimes, maybe, to a ZIP disk. Crap. Crap. Crap. Which is stored in a unlocked file cabinet next to the PC, which is in the old part of the building, with just the bare minimum security and fire protection. CRAP!

I go away concerned and go to write this up. I check our inventory. We don't own a ZIP drive, and the PC only has a Floppy and CD-ROM drive. Just to make sure I check our storage areas. Nope. CRRRRRRRAPPPP!!!

Remember how I said they were not given a PC because they our new PC budget was spent. I love the little surprises I get.

[Blade_Raver]

Wow, what an awesome example of a company's complete disregard to IT security.

I feel your pain for having to deal with that clusterfark.

[HYHYBT]

It could be worse: instead of wanting an internet connection, they could have called because it was dead

[mattm04]

It could be worse: instead of wanting an internet connection, they could have called because it was dead

Yeah, thanks for that thought epically because I can't find the CD's for the software should it die.

[Fire_on_High]

Should be able to get the cds you'd need on ebay pretty cheap.

[Captain Trips]

Write it up and report it RIGHT AWAY! Not to get the users in trouble (well, not ONLY for that reason) but to get the emergency approval to get that data onto a safe and backed up location!

[Der Cute]

Matt:
Write out an email to your boss.
Outline the parts on the desk in a bulleted manner.
Outline the risk you are taking using the hardware for mission critical.
Outline a risk that if a user uses this, whilst in production = data loss.
Specify that this hardware is used for mission critical databases - and that the hardware IS way past it's lifecycle.
Request an answer from boss by a soon date, Oct 15.

Once that's in his hands, you are somewhat clean. You've outlined the hardware, the big outlying issues...and you've made it abundantly clear this is not a good machine for user touching.

Start looking around on Ebay and such to find hardware compatible for a backup and the software to run the OS if you need it. The boss will probably ask you : is it cheaper to reload this offa tape vs. buying new machine for it? Don't forget to add in labor time if this question comes up.
It would take me 4 hours to rebuild db from backup tape = 4 x hourly rate
Purchasing backup tapes and hardware from ebay = 300$ or whatever
Purchasing backup OS from ebay = $200

Purchasing new case/chassis/drives for RAID 5 = $400
Use license from existing pool = free
Labor to set this up and test = 3 hours x rate

If they decide to let the user use the old hardware and keep the old os, you just better pray you're on vacation when it blows.

Cutenoob

[mattm04]

Matt:
Write out an email to your boss.
Outline the parts on the desk in a bulleted manner.
Outline the risk you are taking using the hardware for mission critical.
Outline a risk that if a user uses this, whilst in production = data loss.
Specify that this hardware is used for mission critical databases - and that the hardware IS way past it's lifecycle.
Request an answer from boss by a soon date, Oct 15.

Once that's in his hands, you are somewhat clean. You've outlined the hardware, the big outlying issues...and you've made it abundantly clear this is not a good machine for user touching.

Start looking around on Ebay and such to find hardware compatible for a backup and the software to run the OS if you need it. The boss will probably ask you : is it cheaper to reload this offa tape vs. buying new machine for it? Don't forget to add in labor time if this question comes up.
It would take me 4 hours to rebuild db from backup tape = 4 x hourly rate
Purchasing backup tapes and hardware from ebay = 300$ or whatever
Purchasing backup OS from ebay = $200

Purchasing new case/chassis/drives for RAID 5 = $400
Use license from existing pool = free
Labor to set this up and test = 3 hours x rate

If they decide to let the user use the old hardware and keep the old os, you just better pray you're on vacation when it blows.

Cutenoob

This occurred a few days before a meeting with the person IT reports to. Thankfully the boss realized the serious situation and was to look at the current budget and see about getting funds to replace it. So far we were able to get a backup of the data off site, but due to the age it will not play nice on the network. I have a good friend who has a collection of old Macs who is willing to lend us one should the current one fail until January when we can replace it. The user thankfully has no desire to use it day to day and we were able to issue them a laptop we had that was normally used to connect to a projector and run presentations, etc.