I’ve tried endless searches on “firing a sysadmin”, “locking out an IT guy”, etc., but nothing useful. So, I’ve compiled a list of things to examine when an IT guy goes AWOL and you need to lock them out, reclaim logins and check for holes.

• Firewall passwords & rules
• Router logins
• Switch logins
• VPN server login & configuration
• Domain Admin/root password
• Group Membership (Domain Admins, Schema Admins, Enterprise Admins, Built-in administrators, Exchange admins, root, wheel, etc.)
• Other domain admin accounts
• Service accounts (check Services logon list)
• User accounts (every employee should change password)
• Local admin accounts on client systems
• Hosting/DNS/Domain Name Services passwords
  • Web hosting logins
  • Registrar logins and contacts
  • Managed DNS
• Exchange/mail servers
  • Mailbox forwarding
  • Routing groups
  • Hosted spam filtering
• MS SQL/database accounts
• Auto-logins, i.e. kiosk systems
• Examine startup scripts and group policy
• Examine scheduled tasks, at or cron jobs
• Change wireless security key
• Change remote access accounts, i.e. GoToMeeting, TeamViewer, etc.
• Update 3rd party software passwords, i.e. anti-virus, backup, etc.
• Update 3rd party hosted software, i.e. Amazon S3, Salesforce, etc.
• Change vendor logins, i.e. CDW, Dell, Microsoft, Tigerdirect, etc.
• Remote system logins/wireless
• Check systems in the field for items above
• Check for keyloggers on all systems
• Phone system accounts and logins
  • Change all voice mail pins
• Update building alarm security codes
  • Contact for alarm company if the person is on the access list
• Update access information/logins at colocation facilities

That’s what I came up with so far for a Windows-centric network. Anything you can add?

Operating Systems and Applications

• Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2 (32 & 64-bit versions)
• Office 2003, 2007 & 2010 (all 32-bit)
• CentOS 6.2 (64-bit)
• Fedora 16 (64-bit)
• Ubuntu 11.10 (64-bit)
• Knoppix – Live Linux boot disk
• VMware ESXi 5.0 (64-bit)
• DVD with Windows and Office Service Packs

Rescue and Utilities

• Acronis True Image & Disk Director - Disk imaging and partition management
• SpinRite - Attempts to fix hard drive issues
• Darik’s Boot and Nuke - Securely wipe hard drives
• Ghost - Disk imaging
• WinPE - Windows Preinstallation Environment

Anything you like or recommend (preferably free)?

With a cmd shell open:

Press     To Get
F1           Last command displayed one letter at a time
F3           Repeat last command
F5           Displays the last commands one-by-one
F7           Displays the command history
F8           Cycles through the last commands, typing a character or two will cause it to match the prefix

There are a couple more, but they don’t always respond correctly and IMHO are less useful.

Divided by Industry, Business Need, IT Issue, etc., with searchable fields as expected, there is a good amount of video and downloadable content to help make or break a case.

A good friend of mine recently lost a rather good blog post due to a server issue (it was on a Linux box, so I’m not sure how that could ever happen ;^) and there wasn’t a backup.

In a moment of brilliance (or just a misfiring synapse) I suggested he do a Google search for his lost post and see if they had a cached version of it. And low and behold, they did, crisis averted. If I could come up with great ideas like this more often, having a job would be unnecessary :)

“The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That’s where we come in; we’re computer professionals. We cause accidents.”
- Nathaniel Borenstein

“The great thing about a computer notebook is that no matter how much you stuff into it, it doesn’t get bigger or heavier.”
- Bill Gates

“In all large corporations, there is a pervasive fear that someone, somewhere is having fun with a computer on company time. Networks help alleviate that fear.”
- John C. Dvorak

“After growing wildly for years, the field of computing appears to be reaching its infancy.”
- John Pierce

“Programmer – an organism that turns coffee into software.”
- Unknown

I thought I would let them know they might try having a better selection of smart phones (sorry, 19 different flavors of Blackberry only count as one), letting customers know when more suitable plans/pricing is available and how about the ability to use unlocked, non-Verizon approved, phones.

But when I clicked on the survey link in the e-mail I got this:

No Survey for You!

I guess they really don’t want to know what I think they can do to improve…

This week Microsoft released two critical patches one for Internet Explorer and the other to fix code generated by Visual Studio. Since this is outside of their normal release cycle, it’s definitely time to patch your PC.

And while you are at it, surf on over to see if you’re running the latest Java and Adobe software. As Windows continues to make progress on the security front, hackers have been adapting by using vulnerabilities in Java, Acrobat and Flash; and they also use many others, like QuickTime, so it goes a long way to check that software you use is the latest release.

I guess Google doesn’t need the business since they are pretty much just printing money at this point.

At least someone finds it useful ;-)