I can tell you the most unethical thing I've been asked to do as a sysadmin. Management was concerned people were goofing off too much or visiting questionable sites from work computers. This was...
I can tell you the most unethical thing I've been asked to do as a sysadmin.
Management was concerned people were goofing off too much or visiting questionable sites from work computers. This was a small software development company, about 70 people at the time this happened. They asked me to find out how everyone was using the internet so they could decide if it was really a problem and what to do about it.
I set up a squid proxy, altered the group policy so that everyone was using it, and set it to record. Later, I ran a truckload of analysis tools to determine where people were going, what those sites were, how much time users were spending doing this while they were supposed to be coding, etc. Turned it into a nice, detailed report. Since they didn't specify, I used ip addresses as the identifier in the reports rather than people's names. I obviously knew who was who since I was managing the static dhcp leases, but no one else did.
I was convinced I would be right at the top since I spend so much time on reddit/other sites - I never even cracked the top 40. There was an entire galaxy of porn sites, gambling sites, games sites, but also a galaxy of on-topic stuff for the business, so it was clear everyone was still doing plenty of real work. The reports even told who was who on sites that supported accounts (that stuff was very easy to grab back then before https: took over). Several of the most egregious offenders (most of the top 10) were other managers.
The business owners took one look over the report, decided the entire affair was a really bad idea, and we shut it down. I was the only person at the company who knew what everyone's dirty little internet habits were, and of course I was not allowed to talk about it. Knowing these things is not fun - sitting in a meeting listening to someone rail on about an issue, and knowing they are a hypocrite. I don't recommend it unless you enjoy cognitive dissonance.
I can tell you the most unethical thing I've been asked to do as a sysadmin.
Management was concerned people were goofing off too much or visiting questionable sites from work computers. This was a small software development company, about 70 people at the time this happened. They asked me to find out how everyone was using the internet so they could decide if it was really a problem and what to do about it.
I set up a squid proxy, altered the group policy so that everyone was using it, and set it to record. Later, I ran a truckload of analysis tools to determine where people were going, what those sites were, how much time users were spending doing this while they were supposed to be coding, etc. Turned it into a nice, detailed report. Since they didn't specify, I used ip addresses as the identifier in the reports rather than people's names. I obviously knew who was who since I was managing the static dhcp leases, but no one else did.
I was convinced I would be right at the top since I spend so much time on reddit/other sites - I never even cracked the top 40. There was an entire galaxy of porn sites, gambling sites, games sites, but also a galaxy of on-topic stuff for the business, so it was clear everyone was still doing plenty of real work. The reports even told who was who on sites that supported accounts (that stuff was very easy to grab back then before https: took over). Several of the most egregious offenders (most of the top 10) were other managers.
The business owners took one look over the report, decided the entire affair was a really bad idea, and we shut it down. I was the only person at the company who knew what everyone's dirty little internet habits were, and of course I was not allowed to talk about it. Knowing these things is not fun - sitting in a meeting listening to someone rail on about an issue, and knowing they are a hypocrite. I don't recommend it unless you enjoy cognitive dissonance.
This was before the original iphone release, pre-smartphone era. Everyone was using Palm V devices at the time.
I don't miss the endless synchronization issues for those devices.