On Thu, 2010-04-29 at 21:23 -0500, Larry Sheldon wrote: > On 4/29/2010 21:05, William Pitcock wrote: > > On Thu, 2010-04-29 at 21:48 -0400, David Krider wrote: > >> On Thu, 2010-04-29 at 16:47 -0500, William Pitcock wrote: > >>> Surely even at DeVry they teach that if you refuse to hand over > >>> passwords for property that is not legally yours, that you are > >>> committing a crime. I mean, think about it, it's effectively theft, in > >>> the same sense that if you refuse to hand over the keys for a car that > >>> you don't own, you're committing theft of an automobile. > >> > >> I've seen a dismissed employee withhold a password. The owner of the > >> company threatened legal action, considering it, like you, theft. My > >> father-in-law is an attorney, so I asked him about the situation. He > >> said that it wouldn't be called "theft," rather "illegal control." > > > > Same difference, he still committed a crime and anyone who is defending > > him seems to not understand this. Whatever we want to call that crime, > > it's still a crime, and he got the appropriate penalty. > > I beg to differ (the archives may reflect my objection last time around). > > I agree that a crime was committed. > > It was committed by the management that allowed this situation to exist. > > It is a pretty easy matter to maintain controls that make the passwords > secure but still available to management when they need it. The > simplest system was one of sealed envelopes in several different > District Managers locked desks. Every now and again a manager would > take his or her envelope out and test the passwords to see if they > worked (usually just before the scheduled password change each month).
I don't disagree, but he should not have withheld passwords to devices that were not his direct property when asked by a superior. William
