Shark Tank: Virus calling

This company's head of maintenance is lording his fancy new computer over the guys who work for him. "He didn't really know how to use it, and it was basically just a big box for him to read e-mail and surf the Internet on," says an IT support pilot fish on the inside.

"One of his guys decided it was time he got a virus."

When fish gets the first call, the maintenance head is in a panic. He tells fish the antivirus software must not be working, because he has acquired the "ding dong" virus.

Fish is pretty sure there's no virus by that name, but he knows it's a big world and he doesn't know everything. So he downloads new virus definitions, runs another scan -- no virus found -- and assures the maintenance head that, as far as he can tell, the PC is clean.

A week later, there's another call from the maintenance head, this time to fish's boss -- who calls fish in about the unresolved problem. Sort of.

"My boss was laughing," fish reports. "He told me to just let the guy go. If I wanted, I could run scans, but my boss said to tell the guy that this particular virus didn't seem to do anything bad, it just annoyed people, and so far there was no fix for it.

"His guys had cracked open his box and installed a new peripheral: the chime set for a wireless doorbell. Then in random conversations, they talked about the new virus they had heard about.

"They did this over the course of two or three weeks before they ever touched the button to 'release the virus.'"

"That takes true dedication to your practical joke."

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Shark Tank: Virus calling

This company's head of maintenance is lording his fancy new computer over the guys who work for him. "He didn't really know how to use it, and it was basically just a big box for him to read e-mail and surf the Internet on," says an IT support pilot fish on the inside. "One of his guys decided it was time he got a virus." When fish gets the first call, the maintenance head is in a panic. He tells fish the antivirus software must not be working, because he has acquired the "ding dong" virus.

Shark Tank: Virus calling

This company's head of maintenance is lording his fancy new computer over the guys who work for him. "He didn't really know how to use it, and it was basically just a big box for him to read e-mail and surf the Internet on," says an IT support pilot fish on the inside. "One of his guys decided it was time he got a virus." When fish gets the first call, the maintenance head is in a panic. He tells fish the antivirus software must not be working, because he has acquired the "ding dong" virus.

Security and IT managers need to understand the business

When it comes to security and IT in general, does the exec need to change, or do we? That is a question that Pete Lindstrom answers here, and though I have had my differences of opinion with Mr. Lindstrom, I think he is dead on this time. Mr. Lindstrom's post is directed at Marcus Ranum's latest podcast, which I have not heard, so I cannot directly comment on his criticism. However, I can say that Pete makes a great point when he says, "We don't try hard enough to understand business problems." I can't say it surprises me when IT people gripe about management. There have been enough times when I was guilty of that. And there have been times when the griping was justified because the exec made completely bone-headed decisions that left my network wide open to attack (like the whole "security figurehead" issue I keep bringing up). But at the same time, exec's have a pool of money to spend, and they have to make decisions on where to spend that money. Unfortunately, IT is not the only place where it has to be spent. Do average spending percentages need to be increased in most companies? Probably. But ranting and raving at an executive or your buddies about it is not going to get anything done. If we are going to make any progress at all, we have to understand the business implications, and we have to work within those strictures. Better to have something done by working with the exec rather than nothing at all getting done because all we did was moan about our plight.

Security and IT managers need to understand the business

When it comes to security and IT in general, does the exec need to change, or do we? That is a question that Pete Lindstrom answers here, and though I have had my differences of opinion with Mr. Lindstrom, I think he is dead on this time.

Security and IT managers need to understand the business

When it comes to security and IT in general, does the exec need to change, or do we? That is a question that Pete Lindstrom answers here, and though I have had my differences of opinion with Mr. Lindstrom, I think he is dead on this time.