[LINK] No more human sysadmins??

Rick Welykochy rick at vitendo.ca
Sat Aug 10 02:21:55 AEST 2013


Robert Brockway wrote:

> I've been telling people for a couple of decades now that most
> organisations give the keys to the castle to sysadmins without a second
> thought.  I would point out that a sysadmin is often (but not always) in a
> position to not only view, copy and alter data but to do so in a manner
> which is difficult or impossible to detect.  I've been a big advocate of
> encouraging professional ethics among sysadmins for this reason.  SAGE-AU,
> LISA & LOPSA all have codes of ethics for sysadmins (the latter two share
> a code of ethics).

OTOH an astute sys admin with a bit of black in his hat stands to
gain very well financially if they turncoat and start dishing up
data to well paying patrons. It is ridiculously easy to do, as you
point. No amount of ethics standards and training can stop it.

Although I must point out that programming and systems admin are
NOT professions in most senses of the word.

As impoverished young people learn the ethics of greed and sociopathy
from the likes of Corporates, Wall St and politicians, I see absolutely
no reason for budding sys admins to avoid taking "a little on the side"
in exchange for handing over some valuable information. In a power
structure visibily strewn with corruption and unaccountability, it would
seem to be normative if not sustaining behaviour? Ironic: the new corporate
version of Monopoly does not have a square on the board for Jail. Neither
do corporate and banking USA.

We reap what we sow, and I lament the direction we are heading.

And no, we will not be replacing sys admins with "virtual cloud
service infrastructure" of whatever that loon over at the NSA said.

cheers
rickw


-- 
------------------------------------
Rick Welykochy || Vitendo Consulting

It's choice, not chance, that determines your destiny.
      -- Jean Nidetch




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