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Third, it violated the System Administrators Oath.

https://lopsa.org/CodeOfEthics

Were you required to take this oath? Did you ever repeat it in front of anyone?

I am employed by a company I love working for, with I boss I think is wonderful. I expect to be terminated shortly, for reasons that are partly -my- fault, party just business.

Yeah, I'd totally not even think of doing something like this. First of all, it's completely unethical. Second, it's against my ethics. Third, it violated the System Administrators Oath.

https://lopsa.org/CodeOfEthics

Read the:
USENIX System Administrators' Code of Ethics
LOPSA System Administrators' Code of Ethics

You're an IT PROFESSIONALl now. Act like it. Ignore the politics.

With "root"/"Administrator" account access to IT systems, you're basically God and have access to everything in IT. TRUST IS EVERYTHING between IT administrators and your users.

There was a time when bankers and accountants were highly respected because they had a fiduciary duty to their clients/customer. Following the recent economic crash of the Great Recession and Enron-type scandals, the reputations of companies like Goldman Sachs and Arthur Anderson were significantly tarnished and people's perception of them have noticeably changed. Sure, there's always been other scandals/incidents before but most people only remember the most recent big ones.

Physicians have their Hippocratic Oath, Professional Engineers have their Obligation of the Engineer, and lawyers have their professional code. Yes, every day, there's some new news story of a medical doctor, engineer, or lawyer violating all or some part of these oaths. The intention is that we all like to think/hope that as professionals, we can strive to maintain these goals and call out the ones who have gone astray.

All workplaces have some sort of internal office politics. This is what happens in any size or type of company or organization of humans due to company/organizational policies and just the nature of individuals (which tends towards being selfish or fiefdom-protecting). Being a "non-profit" is ultimately more of a tax status issue and does not automatically mean the entire non-profit organization or that all of its workers are 100% perfect, selfless, always altruistic individuals who all agree on everything.

More criminal minds might call such altruistic people "suckers" depending on the situation. Or what sometimes happens is that the altruistic individuals in charge made false assumptions about the costs or labor involved for operations and refuse to believe that we can't just all work for free or get stuff/materials for free just for the "good of the children blah blah blah". How many rich donors can you really get?

The goal is to find a job that has office politics which you can reasonably tolerate. Since you said you're new, there may be other background history in your organization that you're not aware of that you're just stumbling across now.

And yes, there's always 1 (or more) "crazy people" in any company/organization. Be cautious in dealing with them. Do your job (e.g. fix their computer if broken) but don't get looped into whatever personal agenda they're advancing.

Really doing something about any of the office politics sometimes might mean getting your manager involved (or becoming a manager). A good manager can serve as your "shield" (or "scapegoat" depending on your viewpoint) so you can defer/blame certain things to them ("I'd like to help you but my boss lady said I can't. Talk to her about it."). This is not a path to be chosen lightly.

All that being said...always keep your resume/CV up-to-date and your co-worker and business relationships cordial. Separate your work stuff from your personal stuff. Getting too entangled in this can turn into utter poison for yourself and your future career.

Sometimes, you've just go to bail. Really. If you can describe your workplace with the one word of "miserable" and you've made reasonable efforts to deal with it in a reasonable time period (maybe 3-6 months?), it's really time to go.

Even though it's kind of really targeted towards managers, Patrick Lencioni's book

We're celebrating in Columbus, OH this evening at the Three Legged Mare...

http://eevent.com/lopsa-columbus/2013sysadminday

Events all over the place, more listed here...

https://lopsa.org/content/sysadmin-day-events

LOPSA has a significant discount for renewing members and new members until Sunday...

https://lopsa.org/content/sys%C2%A0admin-day-discount-until-728

Happy System Administrator's Day!

We're celebrating in Columbus, OH this evening at the Three Legged Mare...

http://eevent.com/lopsa-columbus/2013sysadminday

Events all over the place, more listed here...

https://lopsa.org/content/sysadmin-day-events

LOPSA has a significant discount for renewing members and new members until Sunday...

https://lopsa.org/content/sys%C2%A0admin-day-discount-until-728

Happy System Administrator's Day!

Apart from what's already been mentioned here, one bit particularly troubles me:

We are not telling Amazon what you are searching for. Your anonymity is preserved because we handle the query on your behalf. Don’t trust us? Erm, we have root. You do trust us with your data already.

I don't equate having root with having people's data, personally. I happen to adhere to a Ethics Code (SAGE's) that *keeps* me from peeking over people's personal data, *especially* for my own interests. Adding a snitch that report back not only the machine's existence (you get that through APT automated updates) but also personal search requests to Canonical headquarters by default does seem like a major privacy breach.

That the dictator of Ubuntu and Canonical brushes his responsibilities aside like this is downright scary if you ask me, especially given the argument is "we have root, we 0wn you already, sorry bud".

Try posting this on the LOPSA mailing list. It's an excellent resource, with lots of sysadmins in different environments hanging out. If you're not a member, email me (aardvark atsign saintaardvarkthecarpeted dot com) if you'd like me to post to the list on your behalf. You might also want to try the IRC channel #lopsa on Freenode.

Membership is only $50/year, and access to the mailing list alone is worth every penny. I'm a member, and it's saved my butt on occasion. Even if you're not a sysadmin, this is definitely a sysadmin-type question, and I think you'd benefit from being able to ask questions on the list.

Try posting this on the LOPSA mailing list. It's an excellent resource, with lots of sysadmins in different environments hanging out. If you're not a member, email me (aardvark atsign saintaardvarkthecarpeted dot com) if you'd like me to post to the list on your behalf. You might also want to try the IRC channel #lopsa on Freenode.

Membership is only $50/year, and access to the mailing list alone is worth every penny. I'm a member, and it's saved my butt on occasion. Even if you're not a sysadmin, this is definitely a sysadmin-type question, and I think you'd benefit from being able to ask questions on the list.

Try posting this on the LOPSA mailing list. It's an excellent resource, with lots of sysadmins in different environments hanging out. If you're not a member, email me (aardvark atsign saintaardvarkthecarpeted dot com) if you'd like me to post to the list on your behalf. You might also want to try the IRC channel #lopsa on Freenode.

Membership is only $50/year, and access to the mailing list alone is worth every penny. I'm a member, and it's saved my butt on occasion. Even if you're not a sysadmin, this is definitely a sysadmin-type question, and I think you'd benefit from being able to ask questions on the list.

Couldn't agree more. A tape library (as in autochanger) might be out of your budget, but a simple tape drive wouldn't be too much -- say $5000 for an LTO4. Media is $50-$100 or so depending on where you shop. Seriously, you're not going to find a reasonable way of storing that much data anywhere else.

BTW, if you're not a member of LOPSA, you may want to seriously consider it. Even if you're not a sysadmin, this is definitely a sysadmin-type question, and their mailing lists are second to none. It's an excellent resource.

League of Professional System Administrators Code of Ethics. I have a copy hanging on the wall by my desk and I refer to it regularly to keep me honest. Integrity is the biggest asset for any system administrator.

Of course a netadmin has to monitor traffic. How else to assure good service? But what information is necessary and how it should be used ought to be carefully governed by ethics. Unfortunately, these ethics are not well known, and frequently violated by the concept of "owner privilige" (often might makes right). Essentially ignoring any notion of customer rights and treating employees as serfs. Both have been known to rebel for cause.

It is the deplorable state of IT ethics that is the root cause of many of these controversial actions.

Ethics is an interesting concept - first thing that may come a person's mind :

"good and bad"
"wrong or right"
"black and white"

Personally, when one finds themselves in IT related predicaments, I'm guessing it's not that usual to land in a black or white situation, but one of a million shades of gray.

A few more:

"the way one lives"
"actions that land you on the right (good?) side of the fence"
"oath"
"creed"
etc . . .

What is a creed? One definition in an online dictionary defines it as ( http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/creed ) : " . . .any system or codification of belief or of opinion. . ."

eek . . . the entertainment industry (I'm guessing a person can come up with centuries or more worth of examples there) would have us believe in "good" creeds or "bad" creeds - religions, knights, assassins and more.

One might also ask - will your ethics lead you to copy chunks of the comments to the slashdot article above? Ethics in research and writing papers - that's a fought over issue as well. (people often hate to look in this mirror :)

Several professional groups have published "ethics" . . .

American Chemical Society ( http://pubs.acs.org/meetingpreprints/ethics.html )
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics ( http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=198 )
American Institute of Architects ( http://www.aia.org/about_ethics )
American Institute of Chemical Engineers ( http://www.aiche.org/About/Code.aspx )
American Society of Landscape Architects ( http://www.asla.org/about/codepro.htm )
Instutute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers ( http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/iportals/aboutus/ethics/code.html )

To pick a few. Look kind of like science/fantasy fans might see as guild rules :)

IT is no different.

People who strive for SANS/GIAC certification agree to their ethics as part of completing the certification process. ( http://www.giac.org/overview/ethics.php )

SAGE, LOPSA & USNIX share the same code of ethics - http://lopsa.org/CodeOfEthics

ACM - http://www.acm.org/about/se-code

CISA, CISM, CGEIT - ( http://www.isaca.org/Template.cfm?Section=Code_of_Professional_Ethics&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=20454
)

SSCP, CAP & CISSP (certification) ethics - ( https://www.isc2.org/cgi-bin/content.cgi?category=12 )

I'm sure there are plenty more.

I'm guessing there are very few if any CS or IT related courses that don't include some kind of ethics class or section.

Personally - when I was growing up - with a lot of computer enthusiasts in the neighborhood - some slided one way or the other (ethics wise) and some stood fairly firmly on one side or the other (usually the "old guys").

I've been in the professional IT industry for several years - and doing semi-professional IT stuff on and off years before that. Seeing I'm still there - I hope I'm on the an acceptable side of the fence :)

I've been involved in a few ethics dust-ups over the years . . . never got a horrible

LOPSA has had an extremely relevant code of ethics for some time, based on the excellent one developed by SAGE

http://lopsa.org/CodeOfEthics

"We as professional System Administrators do hereby commit ourselves to the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct, and agree to be guided by this code of ethics, and encourage every System Administrator to do the same."

The code of ethics is found here

I quibble:

PRIVACY: I will access private information on computer systems only when it is necessary in the course of my technical duties. I will maintain and protect the confidentiality of any information to which I may have access regardless of the method by which I came into knowledge of it.

First part, good. Second part, less good; it effectively requires you take no action over other ethical offenses that you discover during the course of your work, save when your action is dictated by law... if then. We are not lawyers with an attorney-client privilege, and I don't believe that society would be improved by our having right or obligation on those lines. While we should generally keep our mouths shut, and should not use the information we learn for our own benefit, there are some things I will not walk blithely past and stay silent about. Civil Engineers have no obligation to keep quiet about any bodies that turn up while working on a building project; neither do I.

Aside from that, it's a pretty good code. Add in the line from the Civil Engineers' code about "shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public" at the beginning and I'd post it myself. As is... still missing something.

There is a professional organization, of which I happen to be a member, Called "LOPSA"- "League of Professional System Administrators".

The code of ethics is found here:

http://lopsa.org/CodeOfEthics

While my IT department does not require membership in this organization, these rules of ethics are *posted* and violations of those rules are a fireable offense!

Your company should have a published policy regarding user privacy and IT, and all members of IT should abide by that policy at all times. (In our case, for files or email, we require the approval of the user themselves or of a department manager and human resources before we go off reading your stuff. We do reserve the right to monitor network traffic at any time, for any reason, but we also make sure your email access runs encrypted over the network...)

In any case, please encourage your local IT Professionals to behave like Professionals. How should they behave, you ask?

Like THIS.

Anyone who doesn't lock the accounts of ex-root-access employees and change the shared passwords that they had access to is lazy and negligent, bordering on criminally negligent. That's just inexcuseable...

IT professionals have a very reasonable code of ethics, thank you very much.

http://lopsa.org/CodeOfEthics

I might guess that most USENIX, SAGE and LOPSA members are well versed in open source tools.

You could try the respective jobs boards:

• http://www.usenix.org/jobs/
• http://www.sage.org/jobs/
• http://lopsa.org/jobs

I might guess that most USENIX, SAGE and LOPSA members are well versed in open source tools.

You could try the respective jobs boards:

• http://www.usenix.org/jobs/
• http://www.sage.org/jobs/
• http://lopsa.org/jobs

I might guess that most USENIX, SAGE and LOPSA members are well versed in open source tools.

You could try the respective jobs boards:

• http://www.usenix.org/jobs/
• http://www.sage.org/jobs/
• http://lopsa.org/jobs

My initial reaction was the same. But then I read http://lopsa.org/about_history and am considering killing my SAGE membership (sadly) and instead becoming a LOPSA member. I always did kinda wonder about USENIX as a parent organization to a generalist sysadmin focused group.

Join the League of Professional System Administrators. We're a relatively new group, but we're growing quickly. You'll have an instant peer community to talk with, and a good peer community may be more important to your long term IT career then a few training classes. I also suspect that asking this question on the lopsa-discuss mailing list would generate a different set of suggestions from Ask Slashdot.

I do not think we need a union. We need a professional organization such as LOPSA http://www.lopsa.org/ to, as they say it,

"Our mission is to advance the practice of system administration; to support, recognize, educate, and encourage its practitioners; and to serve the public through education and outreach on system administration issues."

I have seen what the AMA does for doctors, IT folks need the same kind of support.