IT Admin vs. IT Auditor

IT admins and IT auditors often don’t see eye-to-eye, and they don’t usually think their goals are similar.

The IT auditor just has to work a little harder to convince the IT admin of that. I’ve worn both hats, so I know it can be done.

Easiest Way to Steal Confidential Data

A lot of company data is lying around unprotected, making it very easy to steal. No, I’m not talking about picking up other people’s documents at the printer. Stealing printouts isn’t hard, but it can be risky, especially if the printer is a busy one. Besides, it has 2 other problems:

• Your chances of picking up confidential data are low at any given time.
• The person will look for the printout and wonder what happened to it.

There’s a much better way that is fast, easy, simple, raises no suspicion, and is basically impossible to detect, if you do it correctly. Can you think of what it is?

User Productivity/Security Rant

I have heard enough about how security practices keep users from being productive. I constantly hear people complain about the evils of complex passwords (or any password on a smart phone), password expiration, encryption, web filters, lack of admin access on laptops, etc., and how they are such a drag on user productivity and the bottom line.

Why Hate Auditors?

If you’re an auditor, you’re most likely not the most popular person around, at least in most companies. Unfortunately, auditors are hated (I don’t think that’s too strong a word in some circles) for a number of reasons, as noted below. Fortunately, most of them are avoidable.

• SOX is a waste of time. For most auditees, SOX takes a lot of valuable time away from accomplishing the “real work” of keeping the business running. When you hear this complaint, it usually means one or more of the following is true: