Sys Admin & Corprate Ethics

How many times has a manager, or corporate type knocked on your door to state they have concerns over an everyday employee production and just what they do on their computers. So you start logging information on this employee, their email, where they go on the web, maybe even as far as to log every keyboard stroke. Sure enough they are spending most time on email maybe as many as 100 messages a day mostly forwards, short one sentence replies etc and this person is let go. What about what the manager or corporate officer is doing on their computer? As professionals do we ignore all of the blind CC that fly around that show more or less an effort to entrap the employee by giving them impossible deadlines or useless tasks? Do we turn a blind eye as programmers to change formulas in finical reports that do not report the truth? Do we turn our back when it is the corporate officers that send among them selves the most distasteful of images, and sexually explicit and sexually harassing of emails?

In light of the recent corporate scandals like Enron, WorldCom etc, what would you do? As a system administrator for a public agency or public corporation you have the ability to log all information.

1. Log only activity as requested
2. Log all activity to prepare a fully report on all parties involved.
3. Log all activity and report any illegal activity to the proper authorities.
4. Keep quiet and just do what you are asked.

It is not a system administrator's responsibility to deside what is logged, and what not - apart of system administration concerns ofcourse. In the end, you are working for someone that pays you to do a job they ask you to do. If you think there is some reason you either should not do that job, or do more than your job's description, talk to your employer, and try to convince him. If afterwards nothing is changed, you can do two things: either do the job you're paid for, or quit. Personally, depending the circumstances, I'd quit.

I agree.......this is a management problem. Not a computer issue..... I have had this dilemia myself.
If the activity you are tracking is illegal .......such as child porn or malicious activity then you as a person have a moral obligation to report it..if not to management then to the law inforcement agencies.

All companies should have a computer\internet\email policy in place as they (management) can be held responsible for the actions of their employees.

Gypsy

Well Guus did not have a chance to quit. Seems one of the owners was sending email's to a buddy and they were not getting through. Tracing showed a time out so a simple phone call to the sys admin was told they were blocking our IP because of email content and volume. Said ok and then that Admin sent off a nasty email to the owner and it was all my fault :) , and I was shown the door. Funny thing is as part of not having a 24/7 coverage anytime I was not around many logs were sent to my home account, I know stuff I wish I did not know about many people. As for how the SEC got wind of all the creative bookkeeping, humm I'd place my bet on some programmers and sys admin that may have had ethics and seen the abuse of power and leaked the proper info.

The networking administrator is not responsible for making sure people are doing their work. If somebody is spending too much time on the internet, and their manager doesn't realize this, then they arent being given enough work. If they arent getting the work they are given done because they're spending too much time on the internet, it's still the manager's problem. People can do anything other than their work to not get it done, if they're jerking off in the restroom instead of working, is that the network admin's problem?

It's managements responsibility, plain and simple. As the admin for my company, I pushed through a policy that no logs of activity could be disclosed to admin personnel unless the person is misusing the system (I even let porn slide as long as it's legal). I do watch though, if you're disclosing confidential information or watching some child porn you're going to get busted.

Key word is Administrator is this not at the top level? Mind you logs are generally used to solve a problem on a system. So you have an email server that has a bunch of errors so you turn on logging not to spy but to figure out what is going on, in solving the probelm you also have other information that also poses a problem not related to the error. There is a thing in the corp world called "Fiduciary Duty" where, as say a CEO you do not act for your benefit but that of the company and share holders or public ownership. Confidential only goes so far and it is a known fact that on networks nothing is really all that private.