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This morning I had an annoying phone conversation with a customer. They're a big corporate and so tend to generate a lot of "box ticking" so that everyone in the chain can cover their asses if something goes wrong. Actually a lot of is probably just justifying their own job. Anway... their IT manager rings me up and says they've done a security audit of the server we provide them. The audit detected that we allow several weak ciphers to be used when negotiating a TLS connection. The IT guys launches in to this patronising speech about how embarrassing it is that he has to bring this to our attention since we're supposed to be the experts and on top of these things. Then he starts waffling about us failing in our legal responsibilities under the GDPR and all sort of other rubbish. I held my tongue and said that if it was a problem we'd be happy to update the TLS configuration for their server to have a white list of agreed ciphers. He then starts on about how concerned he is for our other customers who also probably "vulnerable as we speak" and that he hopes we will be contacting all of the affected to sort out this serious problem.
I managed to eventually get the guy off the phone. Now I don't have a problem with people doing security audits of our stuff. I don't have a problem with people phoning up and asking for changes to be made. But my god does it wind me up when IT managers start acting like every minor fault they find is some kind of serious cause for concern that means we all need to run around like the sky is falling. It makes me just want to quit and walk off in to the woods... speaking of which
I watched the film Charisma by Kiyoshi Kurosawa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charisma_(film) last night. I've been a fan of Kurosawa since I saw Kairo and Cure. Something about the tone of his work just speaks to that depressive part of my brain. Charisma was no exception. The film takes place almost entirely in a dying wood full of a abandoned buildings. It was cold and lonely but also in some ways comforting. The protagonist reminded my heavily of those times in my life when I've just wanted to stop being me and go start again somewhere else. And after the hassles of today maybe that's what I'll do, or more likely I'll lay on the sofa and gaze listlessly out of the window.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by NewNic on Friday April 12 2019, @06:35PM (2 children)
Someone in your company didn't do their job properly and you are pissed about being called out on it.
Maybe you need to look in the mirror.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Sulla on Friday April 12 2019, @06:52PM
When something goes wrong there is a huge difference between informing a person of the situation and requesting it be fixed and being a patronizing ass. When I deal with someone like the complainer in the OP its because the person is either trying to divert the blame or because they want to make a big deal out of it in the hopes they can negotiate a cheaper deal down the line. Recently been dealing with a problem at work I have come across both kinds of people, one group saying that "well if the amount is off by a few pennies that means the whole system must be failing so we need to bring in an external group, pay them tens of thousands, so we feel confident" and "oh well shit happens just let me know when its fixed". One way makes the problem worse, one way make it fixed.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 12 2019, @07:32PM
RTFJ
My takeaway is "try and behave professionally and treat others with respect" even if they screwed up. If they are unwilling to fix their own problem THEN get all bitchy and if things get really out of control you can always get a new nic!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 12 2019, @06:53PM (11 children)
Next time just say you'll be happy to change it but you need him to email you confirmation that he wants people with older browsers to be completely unable to access his website.
What a fucking noobass. I mean, shit, that's precisely why we allow weak ciphers here on SN.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday April 12 2019, @08:07PM (2 children)
Since the jerky guy gets his jollies telling people off (he's so big and strong!) he probably equally enjoys preventing older browsers' access, and giving people that lame screen "we've detected you're using an older insecure browser..."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 12 2019, @09:58PM (1 child)
Thus the email. Rope to hang himself with.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @03:24AM
Two of the slogans for this: "Say it, forget it; write it, regret it" and "C.Y.A. now, or C.Y.A. [Call your attorney] later" (or for the Brits among us, "C.Y.B. or you'll C.Y.B").
(Score: 2) by lizardloop on Friday April 12 2019, @09:50PM (7 children)
That isn't the only the reason why the old ciphers were on there but it is part of it. We provide these servers to a very wide range of clients and they often have old hardware that needs to communicate with the server. They are often out of support devices and even if there is up to date firmware for them our customers are usually non technical and not able to install the firmware updates.
For context the manager was complaining that the old ciphers left them vulnerable to https://sweet32.info/ [sweet32.info] which after doing some reading seems to indicate someone would have to be listening to all their network traffic or ours. Which I will agree is a problem, but I hardly agree that is a problem to turn in to a patronising jack ass about. Especially since we said we would happily set his server to use whatever ciphers he desired within the day. And if someone is listening to all your network traffic then breaking in to our largely pointless servers is the least of your worries as a corporate. But anyway, the boxes must be ticked!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 13 2019, @02:00AM (5 children)
You may possibly have been talking to one of our IT guys. I'll be making a journal entry soon, regarding our safety freak people and arc flash protection. Yes, tick off all the boxes, and cover your ass! I sign off on "training sessions" almost every week, which actually do no training, but covers some manager's ass.
The company is proud of it's "culture". I think the "culture" should be nuked from orbit.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:06AM (4 children)
Reminds me of a guy at my brother's factory where some new manager replaced all the LOTOs with ones with unique keys and only one master key to increase accountability. Near the end of the first month, a machine breaks and the mechanic uses his on the machine. Well, it takes longer than his shift and the manager gets notice that they guy is clocking overtime, so he orders the guy to go home and yells at him as he tries to remove his lock from the hasp. So he just leaves and they fix the machine about 30 minutes later. An hours later, my brother draws the short straw to tell the manager it is fixed and still down. The manager calls him an idiot and goes down to "fix" things. He sees a single lock in the hasp and is told it is the guy he ran off, who happened to scheduled 3 days later. With no way to unlock the hasp ("tools we got won't cut that super-hard steel, boss"), the manager has to call his supervisor who is two hours away at some family event to get the master key out of the safe. My brother says that when he finally showed up, you could hear the swearing before you saw him pull in the parking lot.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 13 2019, @04:15PM (3 children)
It's happened here. Except, that "super hard steel"? They were yanking the idiot manager's chain, right? I've seen locks that I can't cut easily, but these LOTO locks aren't them. :^)
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @02:55AM (1 child)
If you are paid hourly, are working a weekend second shift, and your manager was once described as "an idiot who couldn't tell a drill from a hammer," I'm sure those locks are harder than titanium. But in all seriousness, I'm sure at least one of those guys (some of them are HUGE) could have gotten through the hasp with a pair of wire cutters, if they really wanted to do so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @02:30AM
Or through the lock shackle with an angle/disk grinder, in short order.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday April 26 2019, @07:50PM
Sometimes when dealing with a PITA manager, the rulebook can be your friend :-)
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday April 26 2019, @07:47PM
Honestly, it looks like a judgement call with fair enough arguments to be made both ways. As such, there's no point in your customer getting high and mighty about it. If they want to tick the box, a simple polite request is all it takes.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday April 13 2019, @05:37AM (1 child)
Even when they're not. And especially when they're being sanctimonious pricks.
The exception to that rule is when you've already extracted all the money you're going to get and/or their demands will cost more money than they bring in.
I know that sounds really shitty, and it is. However, business is not about your feelings or about how much of a dick your customer might be.
It sounds like you took the right tack with this guy, and I understand why you journaled about it here. I've had similar experiences myself, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and mutter "asshole" under your breath after you hang up.
I'm sorry you had to put up with such a jackass, but as I've said a number of times in other contexts, there are assholes *everywhere*. There aren't all that many of them, but they are *everywhere*.
An interesting example of this happened when I worked for a Fortune 50 company back in the 90s. I was doing sysadmin and Unix evangelism and we were big IBM customers (their second biggest, globally, IIRC).
We were doing a project to implement USD$500,000.00 or so of AIX [wikipedia.org] boxes plus storage and software. IBM was having some issues and delivery was delayed for a couple of weeks.
The IBM sales rep came to take the Director managing the folks who would be using the equipment, his boss an Executive VP (EVP), and me out to lunch as a "mea culpa" and to try to unruffle any feathers.
I went up to the customer's floor a bit early to go downstairs with them to meet the IBM guy. When we were informed that the sales rep was downstairs, the EVP wandered around the floor and invited his whole department (25 or 30 people) to come out to lunch on IBM. About ten or so chose to go.
That's a huge dick move, of course. But the EVP wanted to make sure that IBM knew that he was not a happy camper.
We all went downstairs and met the IBM guy. The IBM guy, to his credit, didn't even blink. That lunch cost at least USD$1,000.00, but he knew better than to get annoyed or spout off. I'm sure he cursed that EVP up and down all the way back to his office, but he, like you, did the right thing.
And so. We come back to "The Customer Is Always Right."
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday April 26 2019, @07:55PM
The exception may require careful analysis. If the behavior is a pattern, you have to weigh "wear and tear" on the people who deal with them as well to decide when they cross the threshold of costing more than they're worth.