Nine Ways to Stop Industrial Espionage

An anonymous reader writes "IT staff are in the unique position that if they are nosy, immoral, greedy or corrupt that can get at what they want within their company at the touch of a button. The corporate crown jewels are usually left open and exposed to the IT guys. So how do you protect your corporate crown jewels from staff that can so easily be bribed to steal them and hand them over to a competitor?" I can't imagine having to be paranoid about employees. That seems to me to be a bigger problem than hardware.

Keep them happy?

[BlackCobra43]

I suggest a steady supply of red Swingline staplers.

Easy!

[murphyslawyer]

I suggest a finely crafted nam-shub that will turn them all into jargon-spewing corporate zombies*. That should take care of any free will problems they might have. *Aircraft carrier may be required. Some restrictions apply. Well, I gotta get back to work...ne mi ba se fa no li sa ba fu

Re:Keep them happy?

[Joe The Dragon]

and no TPS reports

Re:Keep them happy?

[neonprimetime]

But from a corporate perspective, Red Swingline staplers are a fire hazard.

Re:Easy!

[Indy1]

nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little Reason :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason_(weapon_system ) [wikipedia.org]

Re:Just to clarify

[Anonymous Coward]

4) Separation of duties, powers, and responsibilities.

Have we learned nothing from the Bush administration. Separation of powers only supports terrorism.

Re:Baby sitters don't work

[christopherfinke]

I could have typed, or told him to type "cd /; rm -rf *" at any point

Wouldn't it have been more efficient to have him type "rm -rf /"? If you're using Air Force officers as typists, please don't waste our tax dollars on unnecessary shell commands.

Re:paranoia will destroy ya

[The_REAL_DZA]

Putting locks on doors is a reasonable preventative measure that keeps honest people from opening them. It does not "stop industrial espionage."

Of course it does! What spy would want to have this conversation at the monthly meeting:

[Sam the spy] Hi, Ralph
[Ralph the spy] 'Evening, Sam. Whatcha been up to lately?
[Sam] Well, last week I lifted some sweet tech specs from ABC Aerospace that I think Mr. Big will really like.
[Ralph] PFFT! ABC Aerospace?! What a crackerbox -- they don't even lock their doors! [loudly, to entire room] HEY EVERYBODY!! Get this: ol' "fingers" here cracked ABC AEROSPACE!! Next stop: FORT KNOX!!
[from the crowd] "Hey, double-oh-seven, they been handin' out candy at the daycare all week; you think you could give me a few pointers that'll help me take some of it away from those kiddies?!"
[Sam] I think I'll shoot myself with my fountain pen now...

Re:I had a boss who kept something in his desk . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Dumb and unethical. I have a management position opening up. Where can I reach you for a job offer?

Re:Keep them happy?

[pla]

The response/parent suggested that misbehavior was justified when management does bad things. It's not. And it never will be in a civilized society.

Of course not. When the Fuhrer tells you to kill Jews, you just do it, right? It doesn't matter that it counts as "bad", "in a civilized society" we obey the alpha male without question.

Damned straight! Put that goddamned hippy back in his place. I'll bet he takes pencils from work, too...