Slashdot Mirror
Remote Management and User Consequences?
NNWizard asks: "I work in a large university in Belgium where the people in charge of university computer systems want to install LANDesk on every single computer connecting to the university network. The aim is to be able to manage software and provide centralized remote user support. In the old days, every department had computer guys dedicated to the department, and they knew all about the users and their needs. Now, they want to make the management of computer resources global. In most non-engineering faculties this is well accepted, however in the Applied Sciences Faculty the users are computer savvy -- they do not like the idea of giving out control of their computers to people they don't know. What experience does Slashdot have with such a situation? Was the deployment of LANDesk (or a similar software package) a good or a bad thing for the users? How were the privacy issues tackled? Were people still able to use their computers the way they wanted to use them?"
"their computers"
There it is right there; the beginning, middle and end of the problem, and it's your own damn fault. You have allowed, through neglect and indifference, the notion that use implies ownership. Truth is they don't own the machines you're trying to manage any more than they own the pavement they park on. Not the hardware, data, software, accounts or anything else involved.
I recommend you farm out the blame. Yes, it's possible to pay someone else to take the blame for your mistakes. Auditors work well for this. Get the powers that be to pay Qualys or some other security auditing outfit to examine your system, produce a crop of guidelines, rules and regulations, and make the system users sign it. Put abbreviated versions of this on the bottom of every email document, on the enforced home page of every browser, in the sign-on message of every feasible system and application. In the end the only real value this produces is the unambiguous understanding that the assets do not belong to the users.
Do this or suffer quietly. Your choice.