Note to Self: Don't edit NIC settings on the Exchange server during business hours =)
-- or anything else on the Exchange server for that matter.
So today was the first day of college -- 5th [official] semester. I've got 6 classes lined up: 5 online, 1 in class:
*online*
-- IT Ethics
-- Ethical Hacking
-- IT Data Structures
-- IT Security Management
-- Network Security and Firewalls
*in class*
-- Object-Oriented Programming
Specifically I'd like to bring attention to the online classes, namely Ethical Hacking. This particular class (along with the rest of my online classes) is asynchronous, meaning the class does not meet online via Elluminate, an academic brand of Adobe Connect or Microsoft Live Meeting. Lecture content, which is generally the voice of the professor going over powerpoint slides is recorded and uploaded to BlackBoard, the web portal/app that all USF professors use for class announcements, discussions, assignment submissions, etc., for the students to download and watch at their convenience (along with the slides). This particular class however has an attendance-optional Elluminate session on Monday evenings. It is this optional session that is recorded and uploaded for later viewing.
All this to say, tonight was the first broadcast and from the look of things, this class is going to be a blast. As the name of the course implies, we are learning to hack. A comment made by the professor went something along the lines of: "If you hack into BlackBoard and manage to get access to grades and change yours to an "A", well, then I guess you've earned it." To counter his immediate temptation, in a because-I'm-suppose-to-say-this tone, he added: "Well, no, that wouldn't be a good idea." A fellow peer in the Elluminate broadcast said: "just dont get caught lol" in the text pane, to which some other peers responded with "lol" and the professor just paused and continued the lecture. I'm sure he'll leave your grade if you change it on your own -- he even said in the lecture while giving the class a bit of his background: "If you're a good student and are seriously interested in information security as a career, shoot me your resume." =]
The 'After' philosophy works this way:
Lets say those files on the server, all 30GB of them, from a let-go associate, are taking up much needed file-server space. They are over 3 months old and have never been needed/requested by another associate. As the files are safely backed up to a handful of weekly full-backup tapes off site, they are deleted late one evening. The morning after (in this case less than 12 hours after) an email is received from the Senior Director of Copy Editors, Software Developers, and IT asking for the whereabouts of the let-go associates' files.
Every Wednesday an associate from the off-site storage company comes to pick up the weekly tape-backup set. The associate generally arrives between 12pm and 1pm. It was about 1:05pm, so the decision was made to leave the box of backup tapes with the other IT guy so lunch could be gotten. After walking out the office into the lobby and taking the elevator down, the associate from the off-site storage company arrives to pickup the tapes within the minute.
One day during a large DFS replication, the tape-backup manager had alerted there was a need for another tape to be inserted to continue the backup job. The backup was 99% complete. So rather than add another tape to the backup set and somewhat redefine the internal numbering system for tape check-ins/check-outs, 80GB of known redundant/duplicate data on one of the arrays was deleted, the tapes were 'quick' formatted, and the backup job was started again. Less than 20 minutes after initializing the job, the Supervisor of Computer Operations called inquiring about the last [nearly complete] full backup we had on site.
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