Comment On Secured Typing

Ok, he told me to type frist.

I'm not the person typing this comment. Someone else is doing it for me.

If signing a stack of legal documents that you're not allowed to bring a copy of with you home is not TRWTF, it should be. Who can know for sure, afterwards, which strange liabilities Gary has committed his company (or himself!) to? His company will be unable to act in any manner to protect their own interests, or even to attempt to keep whatever promises Gary may have unwittingly made.

Actually we never let ANYONE use keyboards attached to our network. We all use "you talk, it types" voice recognition programs...

akatherder:

Ok, he told me to type frist.

No, scroll up.

Too far up, scroll down a bit more.

You misspelled 'frist'. It's case sensitive.

After that he went out screaming loud and hitting his head against a wall??

What a waist of time.

No, you mispelled

"mispelled" was misspelled.

Dear Aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all.

Henning Makholm:

If signing a stack of legal documents that you're not allowed to bring a copy of with you home is not TRWTF, it should be. Who can know for sure, afterwards, which strange liabilities Gary has committed his company (or himself!) to? His company will be unable to act in any manner to protect their own interests, or even to attempt to keep whatever promises Gary may have unwittingly made.

Absolutely! In what bizarro-world is an install consultant even allowed to sign legal documents without at least consulting his employer's attorneys?

Cute story. I guess if he's working remotely then technically he isn't "touching" the keyboard!

At any place I've ever worked, anyone short of a high-level exec can't sign anything on behalf of the company.

On two occasions I've been handed a stack of legalese to sign. Since the actual signing is the only thing of importance, and nobody ever looks at the forms, I scribble-sign: D. Duck.

I've even signed and endorsed personal checks like that and they still clear.

DSanka:

After that he went out screaming loud and hitting his head against a wall??

What a waist of thyme.

Typo correction.

You left out the part of the story where Gary, upon hearing that last sentence, went on a murderous rampage.

Buddy:

Cute story. I guess if he's working remotely then technically he isn't "touching" the keyboard!

Not. If he's connected through VPN then his keyboard is 'connected to their network', and he shouldn't be allowed to touch it.

Maybe they'll send a typist with him.

Buddy:

DSanka:

After that he went out screaming loud and hitting his head against a wall??

Water waist of thyme.

Typo correction.

Fixed that for you guys.

This sounds like a place that could do with outsourcing.

The management, for starters.

Sounds like most of the company's security policies are in Norman's head. How many times have we seen that scenario? If it's not a Nazi sysadmin it's a Nazi security czar. They have to make do with a small amount of power over a small number of people, so they flex their little muscles whenever they have the opportunity. Sad really.

WTFoodnetwork? Why are unicorns popping up all over my screen? Did I find some type of easter egg?

It has been a while since I've read a wtf this good.



captcha: populus, a genus of 35 species of flowers

yonizaf:

Buddy:

Cute story. I guess if he's working remotely then technically he isn't "touching" the keyboard!

Not. If he's connected through VPN then his keyboard is 'connected to their network', and he shouldn't be allowed to touch it.

Maybe they'll send a typist with him.

Will that be a cute female typist, by any chance? (Captcha: "mara"... Ok, why not, her name can be Mara.)

Remy Porter:

The week would have gone faster if Gary had been typing with boxing gloves on.

Nice Homestar Runner reference.

Well, of course no halfway sane court would actually agree to enforce an obligation when the plaintiff had actively and deliberately prevented the defendant from keeping a record of that obligation in the first place.

It's more the principle of the thing that should lead you to run away screaming.

Anonymous:

Buddy:

DSanka:

After that he went out screaming loud and hitting his head against a wall??

Water waist of thyme.

Typo correction.

Fixed that for you guys.

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
FTFY

Anonymous:

Buddy:

DSanka:

After that he went out screaming loud and hitting his head against a wall??

Water waist off thyme.

Typo correction.

Fixed that for you guys.

Guys, don't forget the silent f! It looks perfect, good job everyone. Management bonuses for all!

If he's connected through VPN then his keyboard is 'connected to their network', and he shouldn't be allowed to touch it.

But it's secure VPN, so the company will be completely secure! Duh! Don't you understand anything about security?

We have a secure VPN, after all.

... which will run video conferencing software, so you can remotely interface with your typist.

CaptainOblivious:

But it's secure VPN, so the company will be completely secure! Duh! Don't you understand anything about security?

Thank you for brightening up my day. I bet you've got their thought processes nailed exactly.

I call shenanigans. Spent several days patiently explaining "no, not that key, that one" and "no, a greater-than sign", but the remark "rm -rf /" was perfectly understood without further explanation? Yeh right.

>If signing a stack of legal documents that you're not allowed to bring a copy of with you home is not TRWTF, it should be.

Under UK law, it's a spectacularly stupid thing to do.

I've been through exactly that - I asked for a countersigned copy, was refused and then breached the conditions (allegedly). It didn't take long to settle -
1) To prove I'd breached the conditions, they are required to produce the entire document I'd signed. In public, so bang goes your confidentiality.
2) They need to deflect my argument "That wasn't in the contract I signed". Which they can't unless there's a second copy of the contract which is not under their control. In other words, my copy...
3) There was quite a lot of doubt that a contract is valid unless both sides take away the same level of documentation. It can be verbal contract, written, email etc, but if you ask for a copy and they refuse to give it to you in a form acceptable to you, then it's unlikely to stand in court

Even their own solicitor called them idiots.

snoofle:

At any place I've ever worked, anyone short of a high-level exec can't sign anything on behalf of the company.

You can't sign on behalf of your company, but you can sign on behalf of yourself. You can promise not to tell others (from your company or third parties) about anything that you learned while working at the customers premise. That would, however, require about 1-2 pages of NDA. Not a large stack.

Mike:

Anonymous:

Buddy:

DSanka:

After that he went out screaming loud and hitting his head against a wall??

Water waist off thyme purple monkey dishwasher.

Typo correction.

Fixed that for you guys.

Guys, don't forget the silent f! It looks perfect, good job everyone. Management bonuses for all!

FTFY

Our consulting firm once worked on a project for SABRE. We had our development server in their local office, accessed via a VPN, an electronic key generator, and could only access it from a specific IP in our office. Lo and behold when EDS took over the security we were told we could only access the server if someone there typed in the commands and read the result back over the phone. The IT support person got so tired of us they just gave us their credentials. Later on we just put in a backdoor in the application so we could investigate problems remotely through the application itself (only accessible from our IP of course).

If they'd left us alone none of this would have ever been necessary.

Alan Onn:

I call shenanigans. Spent several days patiently explaining "no, not that key, that one" and "no, a greater-than sign", but the remark "rm -rf /" was perfectly understood without further explanation? Yeh right.

No, the typist actually typed that, before he quickly called "No, no, that was just a joke"... Read the article...

Captcha: conventio (as in: "Please type this letter: \"Dear sir, I cannot withstand your stupid convention of not allowing me to type on your keyboards\"... No, you moron, 'convention' is with an 'n'!")

My Name Is Missing:

Our consulting firm once worked on a project for SABRE. We had our development server in their local office, accessed via a VPN, an electronic key generator, and could only access it from a specific IP in our office. Lo and behold when EDS took over the security we were told we could only access the server if someone there typed in the commands and read the result back over the phone. The IT support person got so tired of us they just gave us their credentials. Later on we just put in a backdoor in the application so we could investigate problems remotely through the application itself (only accessible from our IP of course).

If they'd left us alone none of this would have ever been necessary.

Yes, but then they wouldn't be able to tick the sacred checkbox on their audit policy which states that they are compliant. Ticking boxes is always priority, increasing security/reducing risk is an occasional accidental benefit

Alan Onn:

I call shenanigans. Spent several days patiently explaining "no, not that key, that one" and "no, a greater-than sign", but the remark "rm -rf /" was perfectly understood without further explanation? Yeh right.

The story claimed the typist "dutifly [sic] started tapping away", but "[was] stopped ... before anything bad happened", so it didn't actually indicate if it had been typed perfectly.

Also, given that it's only a few letters and each of them would have likely been spelled out explicitely, it would have been less prone to error.

Sorry up to my ears in patent reviews, all legal mind-set and stuff.

synp:

snoofle:

At any place I've ever worked, anyone short of a high-level exec can't sign anything on behalf of the company.

You can't sign on behalf of your company, but you can sign on behalf of yourself. You can promise not to tell others (from your company or third parties) about anything that you learned while working at the customers premise. That would, however, require about 1-2 pages of NDA. Not a large stack.

Of course, he's violated his NDA by disclosing their innovative and cutting edge security measures. Now they might be hacked!

Headline: Consultant beats IT Supervisor to death with typist.

ContraCorners:

Henning Makholm:

If signing a stack of legal documents that you're not allowed to bring a copy of with you home is not TRWTF, it should be. Who can know for sure, afterwards, which strange liabilities Gary has committed his company (or himself!) to? His company will be unable to act in any manner to protect their own interests, or even to attempt to keep whatever promises Gary may have unwittingly made.

Absolutely! In what bizarro-world is an install consultant even allowed to sign legal documents without at least consulting his employer's attorneys?

Pass. But in the UK I think it used to be the case that only the Company Secretary could actually enter in to legal contracts on behalf of the company.

Heh. You should "View Source" on the article. It's like you read my mind.

There's no shortage of WTFs here, but I was really wondering what the point is of using a company typist who doesn't have the slightest clue what he's typing. I could kinda see a point to having your own knowledgeable IT guy keep an eye on what's going on, but if the guy doesn't know that "rm -rf /" is bad, why is he even there?

PITA:

Headline: Consultant beats IT Supervisor to death with typist.

wearer of glasses killed with frying pan for high treason...

snoofle:

On two occasions I've been handed a stack of legalese to sign. Since the actual signing is the only thing of importance, and nobody ever looks at the forms, I scribble-sign: D. Duck.

I've even signed and endorsed personal checks like that and they still clear.

Fun fact: Legally someone only needs to prove you signed a contract for it to be legally binding. What you signed is irrelevant and ripping up a contract you already signed has no legal impact on its enforceability. Though it will impact the free time of the PA who has to tape it back together...

Gary quickly stopped him before anything bad happened. "Um, have you ever done any IT work?"

TRWTF is that Gary was expecting someone with an IT background, right?

Alan Onn:

I call shenanigans. Spent several days patiently explaining "no, not that key, that one" and "no, a greater-than sign", but the remark "rm -rf /" was perfectly understood without further explanation? Yeh right.

The contractor stopped the typist immediately. I know if I made that joke and someone started typing it, I'd probably stop them by the time they typed "rm".

mace:

There's no shortage of WTFs here, but I was really wondering what the point is of using a company typist who doesn't have the slightest clue what he's typing.

Yes, yes, that's the obvious WTF in the article. (The narrative purpose of the detail about dutifully starting to type rm-rf is to point this out explicitly).

Remy Porter:

Heh. You should "View Source" on the article. It's like you read my mind.

<!-- And then Gary killed everyone in the building. Kidding. -->

Great stuff, you are fast becoming my favourite editor! You even seem to have a solid grasp on English which is unusual for TDWTF (just kidding Alex). Keep it up my good man.

Anonymously Yours:

snoofle:

On two occasions I've been handed a stack of legalese to sign. Since the actual signing is the only thing of importance, and nobody ever looks at the forms, I scribble-sign: D. Duck.

I've even signed and endorsed personal checks like that and they still clear.

Fun fact: Legally someone only needs to prove you signed a contract for it to be legally binding. What you signed is irrelevant and ripping up a contract you already signed has no legal impact on its enforceability. Though it will impact the free time of the PA who has to tape it back together...

Funner Fact: No contract is legally binding if judge rules that it isn't.

mace:

There's no shortage of WTFs here, but I was really wondering what the point is of using a company typist who doesn't have the slightest clue what he's typing. I could kinda see a point to having your own knowledgeable IT guy keep an eye on what's going on, but if the guy doesn't know that "rm -rf /" is bad, why is he even there?

It's part of the security requirement. No one that actually understands computers is allowed to type things in lest they use their knowledge to the detriment of the company. Kind of explains how the security guy got his job.

Anonymously Yours:

snoofle:

On two occasions I've been handed a stack of legalese to sign. Since the actual signing is the only thing of importance, and nobody ever looks at the forms, I scribble-sign: D. Duck.

I've even signed and endorsed personal checks like that and they still clear.

Fun fact: Legally someone only needs to prove you signed a contract for it to be legally binding. What you signed is irrelevant and ripping up a contract you already signed has no legal impact on its enforceability. Though it will impact the free time of the PA who has to tape it back together...

And how exactly are they going to prove that you signed the contract if you signed it with a false name or destroyed it after signing (assuming there is only one copy which was the case in regard to this article)? It's your word against theirs and if a judge rules in your favour then the contract is void, end of story.

Justin:

WTFoodnetwork? Why are unicorns popping up all over my screen? Did I find some type of easter egg?

Look! It is full of stars!