Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)

[TragicMonkey]

Just so you know, every professional IT techie has been through that.

I know. But when it's healthcare there's an extra dimension beyond just regular old corporate security, there's patient confidentiality at stake. People can do things that don't just get them fired but could get actually prosecuted for. And even if they just get a fine or something they'll definitely lose their job, and probably not be able to work in the healthcare field again.

Which is why it drives me nuts when people in the fricking IT department don't lock their computers when they step away from their desks...hell, after fourteen years in this field I automatically lock my personal computer at home when I get up to use the bathroom or get something from the fridge!

Luckily I'm no longer in a job position where I have to deal with users, only data. Beautiful, beautiful lines of logic, and not one single phone call or ticket from a user. The worst I encounter these days is a busted join, which is infinitely preferable to the busted brain of a coworker.

 

[Norman Alexander]

I know. But when it's healthcare there's an extra dimension beyond just regular old corporate security, there's patient confidentiality at stake. People can do things that don't just get them fired but could get actually prosecuted for. And even if they just get a fine or something they'll definitely lose their job, and probably not be able to work in the healthcare field again.

Same job for me here. You know the worst offenders for losing patient data? People who put stuff on USB drives or keys and leave them in their pockets when they leave work, deliberately or not, to "work on at home". And it's the only copy of that patient data or documents that exists.

Guess what happens...of course! They lose or corrupt it. Or stick it in their kid's game PC and it gets virused or the latest FPS scores overwritten on it. Or it gets lost and pictures of some eminent and litigious politician's grape-bunch hemorrhoids end up in a Murdoch daily rag.

And after it all turns to ****, they complain that it is IT who had lax security. And that now these "private" documents are not on the main hospital systems for them to access. And they want to see the backup of them they didn't create. And rail against the IT people for "not doing their job". And "why didn't they tell me this could happen!"

Isn't health IT just the best!

 

[arthwollipot]

Australian Government networks now no longer allow non-encrypted USB drives to be connected to the corporate network.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Australian Government networks now no longer allow non-encrypted USB drives to be connected to the corporate network.

In the Health environment, they don't have to be connected to the network to be misused. There are tons of equipment in a hospital setting that have direct USB capture of data including images and video: CAT, MRI, ultrasound, image processors, etc, etc. Just plug in your USB thingy and save the gruesome details onto it in full technicolour HD. Then take the same USB and plug it in your laptop and copy the documents you have been working on there directly onto it as well. Then remove USB thingy, drop it in your shirt pocket, and away you go. No contact with any secured network at all.

In some cases, "techno-savvy" doctors have directly connected their personal Mac Air to the image processor and captured the video directly to disk. Then they disconnect it and take the Mac back to their rooms for further analysis and stuff. There, they are beyond any data security control by the state Dept of Health.

It's a convenience thing, not any conscious attempt to bypass security as such. The concept of data security is simply not in these people's mindset. It doesn't occur to them until it is too late what they are risking. This has been a running battle in the health sector that has gone on for decades. Some doctors demand all sorts of easy access to data, but fail to understand the confidentiality risks involved.

 

[arthwollipot]

In the Health environment, they don't have to be connected to the network to be misused. There are tons of equipment in a hospital setting that have direct USB capture of data including images and video: CAT, MRI, ultrasound, image processors, etc, etc. Just plug in your USB thingy and save the gruesome details onto it in full technicolour HD. Then take the same USB and plug it in your laptop and copy the documents you have been working on there directly onto it as well. Then remove USB thingy, drop it in your shirt pocket, and away you go. No contact with any secured network at all.

It's a convenience thing, not any conscious attempt to bypass security as such. The concept of data security is simply not in these people's mindset. It doesn't occur to them until it is too late what they are risking. This has been a running battle in the health sector that has gone on for decades. Some doctors demand all sorts of easy access to data, but fail to understand the confidentiality risks involved.

The Federal Government had a couple of security scares in the last two years, so a whole bunch of new rules came down from PM&C.

 

[novaphile]

Just spent 20 minutes trying to explain to two users why keeping a text document of all their medical site login passwords on the desktop of a computer with a shared login is a no-no.

Their entire excuse was just to repeat "well I can't remember all of them" over and over.

So you gave them KeePass right?

 

[Darat]

So you gave them KeePass right?

Real world examples not with Keepass but with another password manager

1) password to log into password manager kept on a sticker on the laptop’s bezel.....

2) Are you using the password manager, “oh yes...” few questions later... “oh I use the same password for everything”.

 

[JoeMorgue]

So you gave them KeePass right?

1. Again they can't handle that. They can barely operate a web browser. One of them can't use the shift key, to type a capital letter she turns on caps lock, types the key, the turns capslock off. Watching her in situations where she simply has to do a multiple key press for some reason is like watching your grandmother try to pull off a Mortal Kombat fatality for the first time.

2. That's change. They don't do change. The learned (and I when I say learn I mean watched someone else do it for a couple of afternoons back when they were first hired) by watching someone else and are 100% incapable of doing anything other then the route routine they memorized.

3. They would just write their Keypass password down.

 

[Trebuchet]

Australian Government networks now no longer allow non-encrypted USB drives to be connected to the corporate network.

My former company once decided to automatically encrypt USB sticks by tying them to whichever computer they were stuck into, rendering them utterly useless.

 

[Norman Alexander]

The Federal Government had a couple of security scares in the last two years, so a whole bunch of new rules came down from PM&C.

Heh, yeah, we have them too. Pretty damned strict rules. But guess what! The Sultan of Outerspaceistan's colonoscopy video still surfaces in the public domain due to somebody failing to remember to follow those rules.

Another vector is the disposal of old computers and tablets and smartphones. They get handed to their kids when staff are issued newer models, without clearing data securely. Kids go on the intertubes, social media...and bingo.

 

[Blue Mountain]

1. Again they can't handle that. They can barely operate a web browser. One of them can't use the shift key, to type a capital letter she turns on caps lock, types the key, the turns capslock off. Watching her in situations where she simply has to do a multiple key press for some reason is like watching your grandmother try to pull off a Mortal Kombat fatality for the first time.

2. That's change. They don't do change. The learned (and I when I say learn I mean watched someone else do it for a couple of afternoons back when they were first hired) by watching someone else and are 100% incapable of doing anything other then the route rote routine they memorized.

3. They would just write their Keypass password down.

I feel your pain. Computers have been standard office equipment for thirty years now, although the interfaces keep changing. But it seems to me to be similar to an office clerk completely freezing up when form TJ105 is updated to TJ105B to allow for a two character country code to be used in the address. And it's necessary to completely re-teach the person how to handle the form, that time and the next ten times it comes across that clerk's desk.

 

[quadraginta]

I feel your pain. Computers have been standard office equipment for thirty years now, although the interfaces keep changing. But it seems to me to be similar to an office clerk completely freezing up when form TJ105 is updated to TJ105B to allow for a two character country code to be used in the address. And it's necessary to completely re-teach the person how to handle the form, that time and the next ten times it comes across that clerk's desk.

My s-in-law, who has been using computers for decades on a regular basis was puzzled when she consulted me about a problem and I asked her if she had tried re-booting her computer.

She claimed to have no knowledge of the term "re-boot".

I explained it to her and walked her through the process (over the phone, no small task in itself) of right-clicking the Start button, then clicking "Shut down or restart" and then selecting "Restart".

She was stunned to discover that it fixed her problem and even more surprised when I told her that it was an age-old first step in problem solving computer glitches.

She said that next time she'd try that, but I have my doubts.

**************************************************

Now if only I had someone who could help me figure out why YouTube TV on Chrome is so screwy about connecting to my Chromecast device. Sometimes it works fine, others require all sorts of starts, stops, re-boots, incantations, and prayers to deities I don't want to believe in.

I have been unable to discover any pattern of things which works reliably. All I know is if I try enough different things enough different times in enough varying orders then sooner or later I can get it to work. Fortunately it doesn't happen all that often, and when it does I can usually get it straightened out after the first few attempts.

This is why I never went the cable-cutting route while Mrs. qg was still alive. She would never have put up with that crap, and would have figured a $150/mon. cable TV bill was cheap at the price. And it probably would have been far worse. She was cursed where anything remotely computer related was concerned, and could manage to get herself stuck in places I was surprised she could even find.

(Sometimes I really miss her.)

 

[alfaniner]

My s-in-law, who has been using computers for decades on a regular basis was puzzled when she consulted me about a problem and I asked her if she had tried re-booting her computer.

She claimed to have no knowledge of the term "re-boot".

I explained it to her and walked her through the process (over the phone, no small task in itself) of right-clicking the Start button, then clicking "Shut down or restart" and then selecting "Restart".
She was stunned to discover that it fixed her problem and even more surprised when I told her that it was an age-old first step in problem solving computer glitches.

She said that next time she'd try that, but I have my doubts.

**************************************************

Now if only I had someone who could help me figure out why YouTube TV on Chrome is so screwy about connecting to my Chromecast device. Sometimes it works fine, others require all sorts of starts, stops, re-boots, incantations, and prayers to deities I don't want to believe in.

I have been unable to discover any pattern of things which works reliably. All I know is if I try enough different things enough different times in enough varying orders then sooner or later I can get it to work. Fortunately it doesn't happen all that often, and when it does I can usually get it straightened out after the first few attempts.

This is why I never went the cable-cutting route while Mrs. qg was still alive. She would never have put up with that crap, and would have figured a $150/mon. cable TV bill was cheap at the price. And it probably would have been far worse. She was cursed where anything remotely computer related was concerned, and could manage to get herself stuck in places I was surprised she could even find.

(Sometimes I really miss her.)

I had no idea that right-clicking on that icon brought up a list of useful menus of stuff I access all the time, but from a different direction. (I'd used left-click quite often). I seem to recall changing the interface back to Windows 7 when I got force-upgraded to Windows 10. I'm not even sure I'm on that option on this computer.

But anyway, thanks for that useful information!

 

[quadraginta]

I had no idea that right-clicking on that icon brought up a list of useful menus of stuff I access all the time, but from a different direction. (I'd used left-click quite often). I seem to recall changing the interface back to Windows 7 when I got force-upgraded to Windows 10. I'm not even sure I'm on that option on this computer.

But anyway, thanks for that useful information!

Left-click will get you there too. It's the tiny little power button icon at the very bottom left of the Start window, just above the Start button icon. There's always more than one way to get to stuff.

I just like the right-click route because it is less cluttered than the Start screen window and has more stuff I use. It's kind of a habit. I almost have to plan to left-click that button.

There are quite a few right-click behaviors floating around Windows 10 that can come in handy. I still occasionally run across one I hadn't known about in odd places.

Sometimes I try right-clicking just to see what will happen.

 

[Blue Mountain]

Left-click will get you there too. It's the tiny little power button icon at the very bottom left of the Start window, just above the Start button icon. There's always more than one way to get to stuff.

I just like the right-click route because it is less cluttered than the Start screen window and has more stuff I use. It's kind of a habit. I almost have to plan to left-click that button.

There are quite a few right-click behaviors floating around Windows 10 that can come in handy. I still occasionally run across one I hadn't known about in odd places.

Sometimes I try right-clicking just to see what will happen.

That puts you way ahead of the the users we're complaining about on this thread.

 

[alfaniner]

Left-click will get you there too. It's the tiny little power button icon at the very bottom left of the Start window, just above the Start button icon. There's always more than one way to get to stuff.
I just like the right-click route because it is less cluttered than the Start screen window and has more stuff I use. It's kind of a habit. I almost have to plan to left-click that button.

There are quite a few right-click behaviors floating around Windows 10 that can come in handy. I still occasionally run across one I hadn't known about in odd places.

Sometimes I try right-clicking just to see what will happen.

That's the route I was using to get there. But since it brings up so much stuff I also use I will probably continue to be a left-clicker.

 

[quadraginta]

That's the route I was using to get there. But since it brings up so much stuff I also use I will probably continue to be a left-clicker.

There's no reason to get in a rut. You can be ambi-clickerous.

(Yes. I made that up myself. Aren't you impressed? Do you think it will catch on, and make it into the New Word Dictionary?)

 

[alfaniner]

There's no reason to get in a rut. You can be ambi-clickerous.

(Yes. I made that up myself. Aren't you impressed? Do you think it will catch on, and make it into the New Word Dictionary?)

If I don't keep tabs on my control, my alt will escape, my function shift, and then I'll have to take a pause break.

And... I just realized there is a typo on the rubber keyboard protector I've been using for years...

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

If I don't keep tabs on my control, my alt will escape, my function shift, and then I'll have to take a pause break.

And... I just realized there is a typo on the rubber keyboard protector I've been using for years...

I get a definition of hone as "refine or perfect (something) over a period of time."

Seems that this would be a really useful function.

 

[xterra]

That is one sharp key!