How IT Pros Can Avoid Legal Trouble

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Peter S. Vogel reports on the kinds of inadvertent transgressions that could land IT pros into legal trouble without realizing it. From confidentiality and privacy negligence, to copyright and source code violations, IT staff are legally liable for a lot more than they might think — in some cases because the law will not stop at your employer, instead holding individual IT employees responsible for violations even if the individuals are just 'doing their job.' Worse, as the recent case against Terry Childs has shown, judges and juries are often not technically savvy enough to understand what IT pros do. 'That lack of understanding can lead them to conclude you're at fault or should have known better,' Vogel writes. 'After all, many people think anyone technical is a whiz kid or brainiac on any topic.'" What legally questionable scenarios have cropped up at your job?

Comments

Re:Terry Childs was NOT an IT pro

[guruevi]

Even though Terry Childs might have been an idiot in the way he handled the case, he didn't do anything wrong from a legal standpoint. As an admin you are obliged to keep passwords to sensitive systems away from incompetent people (whom's access could result in damages) or people who can or will probably use it for malicious purposes (like financial officers of a company).

If you are entrusted with one of the keys to a double keyed nuclear defense system, would you give the keys to your boss (eg. the President) so he can do as he whims? If you do you are just as responsible for the results as the one that actually pushed the buttons. Is there any difference in responsibility between the guards at the Nazi concentration camps and Hitler?

Re:Liability

[Type44Q]

As long as you caught them forking children...

At first I was trying to figure out what this was referring to and then I figured it out: the Vatican must hires developers, too! :P