That's one way to deal with a security breach | Computerworld Blogs

That's one way to deal with a security breach

by Sharky, m.blogs.computerworld.com

Head of plant engineering hires a maintenance superintendent from a pool of several candidates -- and he's not the best choice, reports a pilot fish who's in the loop.

"Within weeks, the new guy has established himself as a wingnut, making bad decisions and also proving to have an obnoxious personality," says fish. "In-plant scuttlebutt indicates the plant engineer has made a mistake."

And within a few months, that assessment proves true: Mr. Obnoxious manages to post a confidential document containing the salaries of his direct reports on a public share of the network.

It's soon spotted by some of the hourly workers, and word spreads like wildfire that the salaries of their supervisors are available in a convenient, easy-to-access form.

And for the next week there's plenty of snickering over exactly how much the company believes those supervisors are actually worth.

Finally upper management gets wind of the mess. What would they do about this misfit who just revealed confidential info?

"He was called in and told to be more careful," fish says. "Then the hourlies had their computer access revoked, except for a few who were tasked with maintaining preventative maintenance forms and the like.

"This adversely affected me as an intranet developer, because now email could no longer be used as a communication tool among the maintenance personnel.

"But at least the plant engineer didn't look foolish for having to fire his hand-picked subordinate."

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