IT Departments Are A Security Risk

stlhawkeye writes "An article at Information Week asks the question - is your IT department a security risk? The thesis of the article is that rank-and-file employees will tend to engage in dangerous/insecure/irresponsible computing and internet behavior if they know that there's an IT department to clean up the mess. 'That confidence,' says the article,'leads workers to do risky, even stupid, things at work, such as opening questionable e-mail messages or clicking on unknown Web site links.' Employee education and training doesn't help, either: '[S]ome workers slough off responsibility for even knowing about threats. Workers in larger companies don't worry about being educated. Big company employees just don't see security as their responsibility.'"

Comments

Solution in three easy steps:

[Anonymous Crowhead]

1. Get rid of IT department
2. Let company infrastructure rot
3. Rehire IT department

Sounds like a management decision to me.

This wouldn't explain ...

[subsoniq]

Why Home users get into so much trouble. I don't think it's because they feel they can ignore security due to the existance of an IT department to clean up their mess, I feel it's because they try to think of this technology like any other technology, a blackbox that you push a few buttons and turn a few dials, something that is completely harmless.

Our company has consequences for stupid user action, up to and including employment termination, so uers are "motivated" to learn the dangers that might confront them and how to avoid them.

Hot potato

[SuperBanana]

The thesis of the article is that rank-and-file employees will tend to engage in dangerous/insecure/irresponsible computing and internet behavior if they know that there's an IT department to clean up the mess.

After almost a decade in IT, I can tell you why there is this expectation. When it comes to fuckups, IT is usually the last guy to get the hot potato, and they're expected to save the day.

Any time a user screws up, the IT department is EXPECTED to save the day by upper management. If they don't, it is (rarely) the fault of the employee, it's the fault of the IT department for not anticipating such a need, or not being available at a second's notice, or simply not being able to save someone else's bacon. Often times we're asked to perform miracles.

It sounds reasonable, until you cross professions. Someone drives off the company driveway, crashes their car into a tree, car bursts into flames. Do the facilities people get in trouble for not ancticipating the employee who leaned over to pick up his cell phone off the floor while driving, and failed to install a nice big inflatable barrier along all the roads? Of course not. Yet IT departments are expected to back up everything known to man, expected to resurrect deleted+overwritten files...

Another example- it's 4:55pm and Fedex comes at 5 to pick up a package that is going to The Big Client. The employee has procrastinated working on it, and goes to print at 4:57. There's something wrong with the printer or their system. Guess whose emergency it becomes? Guess who gets screamed at on the telephone? Guess who gets reamed by the CEO because the package didn't go out? Usually the IT department. "Why was the printer broken? Why couldn't you fix it?"....not, "Bob, why did you wait until 5 minutes before your deadline?"

Re:Different Interpretation

[NDPTAL85]

Wow. With your comment you sum up the real problem with IT depts. You assume you are even on the same level of importance with those you serve, let alone superior.

You are not there to "grant" the privledge of computing. You are there to "support" it. The people who do the actual work of the company are the ones who bring the money in. So if they want to open risky attachments, then fine. Harden your network to brace for that and be done with the issue.