Comments on: Think Hoarding Passwords Keeps You Safe From Firing? Think Again (Forbes Cross-Post) https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/11/think-hoarding-passwords-keeps-you-safe-from-firing-think-again-forbes-cross-post.htm Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:46:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: btjunkie https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/11/think-hoarding-passwords-keeps-you-safe-from-firing-think-again-forbes-cross-post.htm#comment-632 Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:46:00 +0000 http://blog.ericgoldman.org/?p=11074#comment-632 In reply to Eric Goldman.

Thanks Eric. I’ll have to read it this evening. Love the blog by the way.

]]> By: Eric Goldman https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/11/think-hoarding-passwords-keeps-you-safe-from-firing-think-again-forbes-cross-post.htm#comment-631 Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:00:00 +0000 http://blog.ericgoldman.org/?p=11074#comment-631 In reply to btjunkie.

The court’s opinion goes into a lot of detail about this issue, so I encourage you to read it. I didn’t understand all of the details, but it sounded like Childs did a good job erecting some barriers. Eric.

]]> By: btjunkie https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/11/think-hoarding-passwords-keeps-you-safe-from-firing-think-again-forbes-cross-post.htm#comment-630 Mon, 11 Nov 2013 21:39:00 +0000 http://blog.ericgoldman.org/?p=11074#comment-630 I’m pretty curious about this part: “deliberately configured that system so that no one else could access it,
set it up so that anyone other than him attempting to enter it would
erase the data stored in it”

I’m a network engineer and I can say for certain that the vast majority of network devices–actually EVERY network device that I know of–can have the password reset. The password reset process is usually intrusive. Most devices have to be rebooted, for example, but I’ve never heard of a network device that will erase itself if someone tries to reset the password.

I’m guessing what he actually did was store the passwords in a secure vault like Keepass and then refuse to hand over the master key to it. Secure password vaults can easily be configured to delete themselves after a certain number of failures.

What he did was definitely wrong and they were right to prosecute him, but the accusation still rings of hyperbole. I don’t see how they could have been completely locked out of their network by what he did. If anyone knows the details please reply. I’m genuinely curious.

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