Gizmodo: sysadmins

8-Year-Old Macedonian Boy Becomes Youngest Microsoft-Certified IT Professional

John Mahoney — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:40:00 EST

Need your remote access to the accounts receivable server restored? Marko Calasan will get right on that, after he wakes up from nappy time and finishes his afternoon sippy cup of juice.

Marko has dethroned little M Lavinashree of India, who at 9 years old (ANCIENT!) was the previous MS certification for tykes record holder. Marko is now being called the "Mozart of Computers" and received a 15-machine computer lab from Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to toy around with.

When he's not sysadmining it up, Marko practices Thai boxing and is also an avid astronomy and physics enthusiast. The night before the Large Hadron Collider was to be fired up, he couldn't sleep from the excitement. I love this kid. [Times Online via GIGAZINE]

US Navy Sysadmin Fills House With $1.6 Million Worth of Pilfered Office Supplies

John Mahoney — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:00:00 EDT

If you're working at Dunder-Mifflin and you're lifting a highlighter or two every now and then, Michael may feign disapproval, but that's about it. On the other side of the coin is Victor Papagno, a sysadmin for the US Naval Research Laboratory, who was recently busted for jacking over 20,000 pieces of gear worth $1.6 million—from ink cartridges to hard drives to software—over the course of 10 years.

Apparently Papagno was stealing in such volume he had to stash lots of it in the homes of his neighbors, because his own house was quickly stuffed full. The game was up when, after a domestic violence arrest (surprise!), Mrs. Papagno called up Victor's employer, saying she wanted all of his work gear out of the house. "Um, what work gear?" was the response. The rest is history.

Our recommendation is to avoid attempting such a large-scale heist if your employer is the US Navy—apparently no secrets or strategically sensitive information was ever taken, or else Victor would be facing a lot more jail time than the two years proposed currently. [WTOP via Network World via /.]

Study: 88% of IT Pros Would Steal Passwords or Data if Fired

John Mahoney — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:00:00 EDT

If you needed another reason to keep your sysadmins happy: Out of 300 IT pros polled by security company Cyber Ark, 88% said they would steal sensitive data or futz with master login passwords if they happened to be fired. Granted, this is a study publicized by a company that offers services to protect networks against internal rogue operators, but the more data like this that comes out, the nicer our brave IT managers are likely to be treated. Or, the more ridiculous security barriers will be put in place to keep the good ones from easily doing their jobs—one or the other. So perhaps we should have our own informal comment survey—IT dudes: Would you go 21st century postal on your employers if you were let go? [Ars Technica, Image: shearforce]

Make Your Sysadmin Smile: Wish Them Happy Sysadmin Day

Kit Eaton — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:26:00 EDT

It's the 9th annual Sysadmin day today. You know... sysadmins? The people without whom your entire computing network would come crashing down in flaming ruins? According to the System Administrator Appreciation Day website, "on this special international day" you should "give your System Administrator something that shows that you truly appreciate their hard work and dedication." And don't mess up your damn PC by fiddling with it, for once. [Sysadminday via GeekDad]