Why we love outside vendors' ideas of security

Outside vendor has a contract to manage a server for the company where this IT pilot fish works -- but something's not working.

"I got an email forwarded by our Network Operations Center from the vendor, saying that they had an issue connecting to the server," fish says.

"The message included the listing for a failed Telnet session from one of their scripts.

"I emailed the NOC back: The vendor is in the wrong decade. Do they know that Telnet passes the user name and password in clear text? Telnet is turned off on all servers we build. Please tell them to use Secure Shell instead."

Sharky practices security by obscurity -- I file off the identifying marks when you send me your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. But there's nothing obscure about the stylish Shark shirt you'll get if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

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