"Let's wait for his tweet to see if he restored that backup!" Some companies have already deployed their own internal IM solution, however, less than 1% uses it. They also deployed a social platform. It's like a ghost town. I remember an investment bank banning all twitter activity from their employees. E-mail has been there since the beginning of the Internet and we use it everyday. I just look at my inbox, and 90% of the messages are relevant to my work. Maybe that IT company is doing it wrong. =)

Basic orders like 'open $PROGRAM', 'scan computer', 'check email' could enhance and increase user trust. I haven't tried that myself, but it might be the right direction to go.

Apparently this student's ego condemned him in the first place by playing the anonymous hacker role and by spreading the information before reaching the sys admin. That is foul behavior.