How Do You Protect Servers From a Rogue Admin?

Treborto writes "I work with a non-profit that has an extensive collection of photos and videos. These are used in publications and on the web. We have several levels of privileges: read-only of small, watermarked images; read-only of large, clean images; edit of the site; and admins who can confer privileges. It has happened that people leave the organization in anger. So far, no Admin has done so. Is there a back-up, site mirroring, privilege, or other strategy you'd recommend so we have protection from an Admin gone bad?"

Comments

Tips for "rouge" admin defense

[Okian Warrior]

Rogue admins are extremely rare. So rare that there are many other more likely threats you will encounter, such as hackers or data breach. Worry about those first.

The reality is that most people work in a spirit of cooperation and don't want the black mark on their reputation. They would rather walk away without burning bridges.

That being said, bad admins (and employees in general) spring from two causes: bad treatment and pre-existing jerks.

The best way to handle both situations is to talk to your employees regularly, and find out how they feel. If you know that some policy or other is bothering them, you can avert a crisis very easily if you know about it beforehand.

Some people are just jerks. Don't let these people continue in your organization, even if they are brilliant and highly capable, and even if you don't have an equally brilliant replacement. A mediocre replacement who can work well with others will be much more productive.

(Often said: About 15% of your productivity comes from innate ability, 85% from working with others.)

That having been said, if you're really worried about someone doing you in, make sure you have regular backups and that you personally have access to the backup system. Reformatting a disk and copying data is easy - position yourself so that you can recover completely from the maximum damage they can do.

Same As Always

[rtb61]

How do you protect servers from rogue admins, they same way you protect passengers jets from rogue pilots, they say way you protect ships from rogue captains, the same way you protect buses from rogue drivers, the same way you protect trains from rogue engineers and even the same way you protect patients from rogue doctors.. You don't, any protection you put in place to protect a server from a rogue administrator will be broken by that rogue administrator if they are in any way competent. I suppose you could always seek to hire the most incompetent admin you can find a person who lacks the expertise to break the servers but somehow that seems rather pointless. So how do you protecct your servers from rogue admins, don't hire them in the first place. Consider a full psych evaluation (stay away from the anal types), pay a food salary and, make them part of the executive team.