Paul's Mailfrom (Was: IETF SMTP Working Group Proposal at smtpng.org)

Wed Aug 28 00:08:26 UTC 2002

At 7:37 PM -0400 2002/08/27, Dean Anderson wrote:

>  You worked at AOL?  This happens quite often. I've known of several admins
>  who started reading email, checking terminal servers, and "disrupting"
>  users who complained about the admins performance.  One admin wrote a
>  script that reset the session of a "PITA" user every half hour.

	I've heard of cases like this.  I also know that the people I 
heard about were terminated with extreme prejudice, as soon as 
management got even a single whiff as to what they were doing.  They 
took a really, really hard line against this kind of administrative 
abuse.

	Before I left, they had started seriously cracking down on 
removing any additional access or permissions that someone may have 
had, if they couldn't prove that they needed it during the course of 
their job.  I basically lost all access to the Stratus mainframes, 
because I didn't need it in order to perform my duties as the Sr. 
Internet Mail System Administrator.


	No, I have a lot of my own bitches about AOL, mostly due to 
extremely questionable business practices that I saw while I was 
there.  But this is an area where I don't think that much criticism 
can be rightly levelled at them.

>  That is the number one problem, and its why consumer groups think they
>  need tougher privacy laws.

	I definitely support tougher privacy laws.  But I don't think AOL 
would be likely to have much problems meeting or exceeding most 
enhanced privacy laws that I can think of.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
     -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

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