rivercrow

There’s an article on Slashdot about sysadmins reading the bosses’ mail.

Those of us who have done system support understand how this can happen. Because I’ve been mostly on the support side of the fence for years, it’s surprising to me how many don’t understand the implications of being a sysadmin.

One of the commentators sums up most of the issues nicely.

It is all part of the job by cyanics

Would you be upset if your alergist (doctor) had access to your blood work? No. It is his job. Trust is a huge component of system administration, and any company, or corporation, who doesn’t understand that the administrator has the keys to the system, needs to take a better look at their corporate layout.

Admins have access to everything. Or at least they should have access to virtually everything. Because who would you call if it was broken? certainly not the corner office.

Trust is necessary. You have to trust your admins. And if you have an admin that leaves under suspicious or grievious circumstances, you protect your corporations ass with a dismissal agreement.

Thoughtpoint:
In a corporation, you have a right to expect the sysadmins to be trustworthy. Is the same true for volunteer-run forums? Should we have different expectations of trustworthiness depending on whether the sysadmin is volunteer or paid?

If you think volunteer sysadmins can be held to a lower standard, consider who these folks are likely to be. Possibly working sysadmins helping out? Students who intend to enter the workforce as sysadmins? Does this make a difference?

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