For me I think it was a donor "database" that happened to just be a word document filled with the contact info of all their donors. To make matters worse, there wasn't much standardization to the layout. I spend about a week writing a Perl script to try and parse all the data and at least put it in an Excel spreadsheet.
Worst mess you've inherited?
+56Per @ 's suggestion in this thread, I'm breaking this out into a separate discussion. What's the worst mess you've inherited from the former IT person?
For me I think it was a donor "database" that happened to just be a word document filled with the contact info of all their donors. To make matters worse, there wasn't much standardization to the layout. I spend about a week writing a Perl script to try and parse all the data and at least put it in an Excel spreadsheet.
For me I think it was a donor "database" that happened to just be a word document filled with the contact info of all their donors. To make matters worse, there wasn't much standardization to the layout. I spend about a week writing a Perl script to try and parse all the data and at least put it in an Excel spreadsheet.
So many choices, the server room that had a lock you could defeat in 5 seconds with a knife, the (other server room) which literally is a closet w 1/2 of it taken up by supplies with no AC (in TEXAS...) , the wifi at the warehouse set up according to "if one is good and 2 is better (12 APs covering 60k square feet and doing a horrible job of it), A LOT must be a lot better, lets use the 120 v conduate as a convenient cable management system for the cat 5 runs, his inability to conseputalize distance (literally every cable is 3-4x as long as it needed to be), the fact he was running a haflife 2 server off one of the drafting workstations, that he had put a password sniffer on the network, our endpoint protection which consisted of expired symantec on like 3/4 of the machines, illogical network topology there our 4 switches were daisy chained (3 additional hops to get to anything that was on switch 4...), the literally home grade security cameras (so bad I wouldnt buy them to secure my apartment) covering the office area, the burgler alarm system that had no cellular backup for the POTS lines, offsite backup via sneaker-net (back up to an external and he'd take it home), everyone having local admin and at another company I do some contract work for one of their servers had a normal desktop HD (WD blue) literally lose inside the main compartment of the case (not in a drive bay) with its cables running between the case door and a vent shroud causeing the vent shroud to apply significant pressure to the motherboard (atleast it was easy to figure out why the server died...).
Probably the worst from a security (data and physec) is finding out that the computer that ran the keycard system had no password (off domain non networked xp box), the password for the management software was "password" the same dude who admin'd the database had a pile of the cards in his desk and no one in production (his department) had a card tied to their name they were using cards frof course no documentation, which forced me to audit it completly, found literally 60+ cards that I couldn't tie to current workers ( we have maybe 100 employees w keycards), atleast 20 of them were active cards tied to accounts w/o names I think he had a number fo those ghost accounts so he could play games, he smashed his company ipad and slashed the sales manager's tires when he got fired (oh and the only "camera" covering the parking lot was a dummy camera, his idea, and he was one of only 3 people who knew it was fake)
He had literally no clue wtf he was doing, but he'd managed to convince people he did and unfortunately they believed him. He got replaced as it guy by my boss (who was too busy keeping things running to find/fix all the crap) 2 years ago, and I've spent most of the year I've been at the company fixing stuff and I still regularly find stuff that's his fault. I literally can't do anything w/o finding some of his work that I have to undo, fix or replace.
Probably the worst from a security (data and physec) is finding out that the computer that ran the keycard system had no password (off domain non networked xp box), the password for the management software was "password" the same dude who admin'd the database had a pile of the cards in his desk and no one in production (his department) had a card tied to their name they were using cards frof course no documentation, which forced me to audit it completly, found literally 60+ cards that I couldn't tie to current workers ( we have maybe 100 employees w keycards), atleast 20 of them were active cards tied to accounts w/o names I think he had a number fo those ghost accounts so he could play games, he smashed his company ipad and slashed the sales manager's tires when he got fired (oh and the only "camera" covering the parking lot was a dummy camera, his idea, and he was one of only 3 people who knew it was fake)
He had literally no clue wtf he was doing, but he'd managed to convince people he did and unfortunately they believed him. He got replaced as it guy by my boss (who was too busy keeping things running to find/fix all the crap) 2 years ago, and I've spent most of the year I've been at the company fixing stuff and I still regularly find stuff that's his fault. I literally can't do anything w/o finding some of his work that I have to undo, fix or replace.
+56Wait, he ran a password sniffer on the network? WTF?
Yes back when he was the it guy. Only reason I figured it out was he had the website he got it from in his favorites (went through his computer when he got fired because he'd deleted a TON of important stuff) and then ran a deleted file recovery tool and found it had been on the computer 3 years ago, run and then deleted.
Yea, it's a measure of how bad at IT this guy was that the PW sniffer isn't my worst story...
Yea, it's a measure of how bad at IT this guy was that the PW sniffer isn't my worst story...
+56Good lord - how long did it take you to get the whole mess unscrambled?
I'm still finding stuff he's responsible for, like the alarm thing I only found that out a month or 2 ago when we were having some other service done and the tech noticed we didn't have a cellular backup. He's been fired for 6+ months and out of the It dude position for 2+ years. My boss replaced him, but has been too busy with day to day stuff/keeping stuff working to find/fix everything, and I've been with the company for about a year. Got promoted to Sys Admin this month from Helpdesk Goon, so now all the broken stuff is officially my job and I have free reign to fix it. It's so nice just beign able to say "im fixing X because it's broken" instead of having to ask for permission.
+56Nice, congrats on the promotion!
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