Who Would Do That?
Before I tell you this story, allow me a little leeway. In my little semi-cubicle called dispatch, there are currently three workers. The existing dispatcher and two new dispatchers, myself and an “admin transplant”. Someday I will tell glorious tales of this time. Today sadly, it is not glorious. Today I will simply tell you that there are three “distinct” workspaces; three PCs; three chairs.
Friday, in the course of performing work requirements, the first dispatcher must have closed out some programs on the “second dispatcher’s” computer. I put that in quotes because we share workspaces depending upon who’s “on the radio”, or who might be out of the office at the time.
Dispatcher #2 (or #3 depending upon how you count) interrogated me upon her return from lunch - or something else where she was out of the building - about who might have closed the programs she was “working on”. After no response from myself, she asks the rhetorical question, “would I come over to that desk and close programs that you’re working on?”
The obvious, “if I’m not sitting here, I’m not working on the program,” doesn’t assuage her.
“You don’t understand my question,” she retorts. But of course I do understand the question far better than she knows. My mental response (because it doesn’t matter what I would have said, she would not be satisfied) hearkens to the lessons of Kevin Mitnick. First and foremost, do not leave programs open on your computer that give others access to things that they don’t belong in; #3 leaves district accounting software open. Whether that’s a huge gaping security hole or not is not the question. She’s the only one of the three of us given that kind of access. If her login is active and I wanted to change something I could (I wouldn’t), and so can anyone else who happens to wander into the dispatch office. A couple of clicks, even accidentally, can disrupt our portion of the school district budget and she would be the one responsible. Apparently she doesn’t get the importance of logging out of her computer. She did ask why I “locked” my computer - whether I was worried about people messing with it. You better believe it. The district can track activity by login. And if I’m not at the machine, no one else needs to be working on it - unless they have their own login.
