Have you been in IT for long? I don't even let users push a power button... Perhaps you work in a courtroom. I hear that those lawyer types don't really do any good and that you should fight your own court cases. Or maybe you are a mechanic. Fix your own engine a lot? Ohh....wait....you are an airline pilot... Not trying to be a jerk, but there are plenty of reasons to get someone to help you when the fight seems one-sided.

If only this were true. I find more and more that all Unions accomplish is taking your money and then leaving you to hang; or they waste time fighting for rthings the people don't even want. I have lost all faith in Unions many years ago, and I have yet to see any move in a positive direction to actually help the workers paying them.

The FBI, CIA and ATF just left to ring your doorbell. See you in 5 - 10.

Its open source, and just like ALL open source, unless the user is savy enough to lock it down, it will be vulnerable. This is especially true when you combine it with applications that are designed to run with little to no supervision. Its the same arguement that people make about Windows. The OS was designed to allow applications to be developed and run. Otherwise, Windows or Linux or any other OS could always simply develop a brick and tell developers they better know how to code in concrete...

Nerds not getting laid leads to them not reproducing.

True, but the OP didn't actually state it was for security purposes. He might just simply need to wipe the drive before they install another image. I have worked for a place that did this due to requirements set by non-IT typish folks. They thought that by wiping the drives before installing (as opposed to the highly-technical formatting of a HDD) that the new image was more clean. This concept was quickly adopted into an SOP that was incorporated into a signed agreement between companies. After pointing out the process was not really necessary (although didn't hurt either), the company decided to simply go on doing it since it was harder to change the SOP and signed Memorandum of Agreement.

I used to work for a company that managed systems remotely. Everything from network devices, servers, etc. The sites all manage their own workstations and internal network devices, but we took care of the Enterprise. So... One day, while looking at my logs I notice an alert pop up for one site that indicated the network devices all went down. This site in particular is a small site that does not generally have people needing outside connectivity, but they pay to have uptime and are therefore just as important as any large site. Due to the polling process of our alert system, this means that there can be a 5 minute window of error on the alert. It could have happened anytime from the second the poll went out, to 5 minutes ago when the last poll went out. I investigate by attempting to log into the device, and am able to log in without any problems. I check the logs and see...sure enough, power failure. So, I call the site admin to make sure everything is alright, and the admin tells me...No power failure at the site. He checks the network room and finds nothing out of the ordinary. Well, this warrants further investigation just to see if there is any issue with the equipment...and because I am bored enough to check on anything at this point. So after looking at logs for the last two months, I find a very interesting fact. Power Failure tickets auto-gen at the same time each Monday and Wednesday for the last two months. Long story short, we find that the cleaning lady doesn't have a free power outlet to plug in the vacuum, so is unplugging the equipment, does her work in the small area, and then plugs the equipment back in. Since the cleaning lady has room clearance, and everyone in the building knows her, there simply was never a question when she went into the small room to clean. Now, I know its a different kind of maintenance than the OP is discussing, but I thought I would share a funny little story for your Monday. Hope you enjoy.

Yes man attitudes? Stop hiring privates. My company hires almost exclusively from the military and I find it hard to come up with any complaints. I'm going to assume that you actually have an interview process in place? The military produces leaders, not "Yes Men". I will admit that tech skills can be shallow at first, but with the right aptitude and attitude, I see the vets I have hired exceed all of my expectations. I could not be happier.

I think a key argument being lost here is that, while Quantum Computing may tear through current encryption, it will also be responsible for the creation of new and improved cryptography methods. In fact, with quantum factoring, there is a theoretic possibility to create an encryption that is so difficult to break, it could be considered impossible...and it could be done with very basic quantum mathematics (If you can call quantum mathematics basic). As for SSH and RSA, until the "Quantum Menace" actually rounds that corner, these will remain the industry standard for a while. Even once someone creates a quantum computer that is actively breaking encryption, companies will not likely have the technology available to counter this for a while. You can't simply walk into Radio Shack and pick a quantum computer up. All we can hope is that the good guys get it up and running first, and make a solid encryption method that follows.