There's a Reason People Don't Trust the IT Department
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Every so often, an article or study comes out that strives to make IT look bad, either ineffective or a misguided use of corporate dollars. And every so often, an article or study comes out that shows some IT people making their own selves look bad. A new survey falls into this latter category. One-third of IT workers admitted to snooping on confidential files in their company's networks, including salary details, personal e-mails and meeting minutes, according to a survey released June 19. Nearly half said they'd accessed information which had nothing to do with their jobs. Cyber-Ark, the information security company that sponsored the study, argued that these transgressions were made possible because companies have sloppy policies and insecure methods around administrative passwords, but of course, the company's business is in these areas. Yet the bigger issue seems to be the way a large chunk of the 300 senior IT pros who took part in the study are making all of the trustworthy, professionally responsible IT people look bad. Matthew, a poster at Geek.com, says these people are bad seeds, but that their managers are often not clued in enough to stop them. "Unfortunately, some IT workers will take advantage of 'the power' they have to look at things they shouldn't be and abusing their position," writes Matthew. "These people should be reprimanded by management, but in a lot of cases management have no idea what is happening because again, they don't understand the system well enough or have mechanisms in place to ensure confidential data is kept that way." |
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Comments (5)
This is but a very small grouping of personnel. The majority of IT professionals are hard working honest people who could care less about other people's files, and email messages. While I understand that Cyber-Ark is in the business of making this sort of information available in a feeble attempt to increase their sales and profits. I find it reprehensible for them to use this scare tactic in order to gain market share. This study is totally skewed against IT workers and will only lead to un-needed policies and controls.
Also, the reason that people don't trust IT is not this only. The main reason that people do not trust IT is due to the fact that people still view PC's as some sort of mystical creatures and the fact that IT personnel are able to get PC's and servers to do our bidding is scary and dauting to everyday people. After all most people don't even know what IT perosnnel are even capable of.
Posted by Johhathan Lightfoot | June 23, 2008 8:10 AM
When I went through my MCSE course back in 1998, 1 hour was slated for ethics but through questions and observations, I managed to make it last for the whole morning. Still woefully too little time on such a very critical subject. Quite a few IT instructors like to say "It's good to be God," and with that in mind, ethics should garner a heck of a lot more than an hour.
The nature of the Admin job is that those individuals are trusted to keep the network running and secure, and and to do that, they need the access to fix what is broke and to retrieve what is lost, not to satisfy their desire to know how much Tom, Dick, and Harry are making.
What bothers me is that from the wording of the article, it is not run of the mill IT pros, but Senior IT pros who confessed to this. Nice work mentors. Tell me, do you steal cookies from Girl Scouts too?
Posted by Bob | July 1, 2008 9:22 AM
If you have no criminal intent then whats the problem of seeing this type of information? Sometimes it is only accidental anyway... like when your manager leaves the bosses e-mails talking smack about you right on his desk in plain sight. Then you find out about the conniving co-worker who has been badmouthing you behind your back.
Frankly I would only care about knowing someones salary if they were in the same position/responsibility as me... if you can't compare your salary to someone else how do you measure your worth.
Posted by Patrick | July 1, 2008 10:50 AM
I'm curious how this same question would be answered by HR employees, who also have "the power" to view employees' personnel folders, salaries and other confidential information. Remember the news of hospital employees looking at candidates' medical files?
My guess is that IT employees are no worse, and no better, than any group of employees with similar access to confidential information.
I've worked in both IT and HR. When I was not a manager, my managers repeatedly talked about, and now that I am a manager, I make sure I talk about, the importance of confidentiality and trust. Being able to keep confidence is a condition of working in this type of position, whether it's IT or anything else.
It's almost impossible to put in safeguards that would prevent the ability to access all confidential information. We have to talk about this part of our jobs and immediately confront employees who appear to be abusing their positions. As with many other things in life, peoples' ethics matter.
Posted by Mavis | July 1, 2008 10:52 AM
I have to agree with Lightfoot. As an IT Pro, I could care less about that Info.
But I can also say, I care a great deal for my integrity and reputation.
Sounds like those with Patrick's attitude, give the rest of us, bad reps.
As I see it, you have no business looking at anything on your bosses desk (so to speak).
Keep your nose where it belongs. If you want to be a part of that area, go for he's (or her) Job.
It's no accident if you keep reading.
I have no doubt there are many of us out there with integrity.
Plus, these things don't run themselves.
Posted by TJMeyer | July 1, 2008 12:05 PM