Proof: Your employees are potentially your worst assets

[P5-133XL]

Microsoft hires a mole (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/728/1050728/vole-hired-mole)
Contractor indited for Logic bomb (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/724/1050724/contractor-indicted-logic-bomb)

[Mercutio]

I believe there was a Dilbert cartoon about 10 years ago that suggested employees were the seventh most valuable assets for a company, right behind paper clips.

Sounds about right.

[timwhit]

The contractor one was pretty amazing. I sent it to our Unix sysadmin, he didn't think it was as funny.

[P5-133XL]

I really can't even imagine what would have happened to our (the USA's)financial system if that logic bomb had not been found before it had executed.

[ddrueding]

I know that RAID is not a backup, but now it seems that online backups aren't enough, either. Time to go back to a copy powered off in a fire safe.

[Handruin]

For financial systems like that, it should be even MORE than a fire safe. The type of systems we sell here are geared for multi-site redundancy for such customers who need the highest amount of protection (ie world trade centers collapsing). Not only is the data mirrored to an external facility, it is also safe guarded much like you suggested, often times in some type of 'iron mountain' facility.

[ddrueding]

I have multi-site redundancy, and many-copy archiving, but all the systems are online and connected to the same network via VPN, Fiber, wireless, etc. A virus or malicious user with admin access could kill it all, in theory.

[Handruin]

Then you might want to introduce some type of compliance procedures that do not allow any one person or system the right to cause such havoc. The offline or tape archive (or virtual tape) is also another source of backup.

[Fushigi]

The insider threat is one of the largest, if not the largest, threat to most companies. It is also the most difficult to mitigate. Even hiring someone you trust today doesn't mean they will be trustworthy tomorrow.

Dovetailing on what Handy is saying, the iron mountain is literal (http://www.ironmountain.com/index.asp). Recall (http://www.recall.com/) is their major competitor. We use high availability to mirror to alternate data centers in different cities. Backups of production and the mirrors are also off-sited to storage facilities. The HA software can restore us to any point-in-time as long as the journals are available, so having a good tape (or equivalent) backup strategy is key even with the server mirroring.

[ddrueding]

Yup. I'm the only one with access to the whole thing. I think I'll make our offsite server a "pull" system that isn't a member of the domain and requires different credentials. That way it can pull the data it needs to backup, but no other machine can access/control it.

[udaman]

Yup. I'm the only one with access to the whole thing. I think I'll make our offsite server a "pull" system that isn't a member of the domain and requires different credentials. That way it can pull the data it needs to backup, but no other machine can access/control it.

Hal9000... 'what are you doing dave?' :D

Space missions typically have lots of redundancy, still the backup systems fail too :(

[udaman]

Judging by the current news, I'd say the guys at the top levels of the company are potentially the worst assets. Tax payer bailouts of companies that gave out $15B+ in bonuses...repeat that again, your bailout dollars are going to the top level execs as *bonuses*!!!

What a country!

Madoff was a one man company, it's worst asset (or best until he got caught ;) )...since I'm a racist with no Palm Beach mansion...I blame the Jews for it all :p.

Bernard Madoff and the Jews of Palm Beach (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurence-leamer/bernard-madoff-and-the-sh_b_150624.html)


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurence-leamer/bernard-madoff-and-the-sh_b_150624.html



People in Palm Beach sort themselves out into the group in which they belong based largely on how much money they have. Even the poorest of the islanders seem to have everything yet joy proves elusive, even for the country club members, because there is always someone richer or better socially connected. Joy is driving out of your 35,000-square-foot mansion in your Bentley and tooling up to the entrance of Mar-a-Lago for your fifteenth ball of the season, the valet parkers salivating at the chance to take your car and the prospect of a twenty-dollar tip. Joy is having a wife younger and thinner than any of the other wives at your table. Joy is subtly announced during dinner that your hedge fund scored 33 percent last year, while that of the arrogant son of a bitch across the table with the fat wife scored only 17 percent.

Those with the biggest financial gains generally had their money managed by Madoff. It was an honor having him handle your fortune. He didn't take just anybody. He turned down all kinds of people, and that made you want to give the man even more of your money. When he took your fortune, he told you that he would tell you nothing about how he achieved his returns. He was a god. He had the Midas touch.So if I become a billionaire Jew, I can have almost any skinny arse younger Asian babe I want?

Oh alright Ziyi ain't that hot, but there are plenty of others, right?

http://playingmonkey.com/asian-pics/zhang-ziyi-caught-naked-at-st-barth%21/

(not SFW, naked beach photos^^^)