Princess Fix IT

You ought to use the Demotivators screensaver.

Oh dear god please don't tell me this is going to be implemented company wide. Why does the IT department insist on implementing stupid policies people don't want?

If I wanted my system locked, I'd lock my system. This is stupid. If I'm playtesting part of my game and not actively using my PC I still want to track an output window, or see if email comes in.

PS. Did I mention this is stupid?

Did I mention this is a SOX compliancy policy forced down by the government and not your friendly neighborhood IT department?

Why yes...

Yes I did.

;)

Atari had to do the same thing for the same reasons a few months ago. They lock out our machines the same way that you can do it by hitting "Ctrl+Alt+Del". No screen saver based locking at all. Now how they did it... dunno. Sorry.

It's really not that annoying. Especially once I realized you can boot someone off a locked computer with your own login. That's much easier than power cycling the computer. :oD

Why does PD have to comply with SOX?

Paul...well if you happen to make friendly with the IT folk and find out how they did it, please drop me a line. I'm not sure if I'm just not doing enough research or doing the right research.

Steve...good question, wish I had the answer. I'm not quite sure why PD has to follow all the rules as this law is mainly concerned with Finance and Accounting, but they did make us include them when we had to do the password policy change. That leads me to believe some policies must be pushed out universally. As you can see from above, Atari also included PD in their rollout.

The SOX documentation is obscenely vague (not to mention very frustrating) and it often takes a couple passes to understand the most simple of concepts becasue they are worded so oddly.

I think most of you (especially those of you who are users at my place of employment) will now understand even more so why SOX is a complete pain in the ass and (mostly) a waste of time. It's a tad shady to boot as some software companies are making a ton of money off this new law by getting strong endorsements from the powers that be. Although the law claims to protect Americans from Corporate Fruad, it appears it just serves to shuffle the money to another recipient instead.

I maintain my point - the government enacted SOX, but IT is implementing it.

Last I checked, that bill did not contain any provision saying that you must lock out users using the SS. It especially didn't mention that PD is part of SOX too.

So, as much as I dislike our gub'mint - that rests on ITs shoulders. Or company higher-ups who set the policies. It makes sense to them - it's basic CYA to have everybody follow the same policies.

Black Goat: Stick a matchstick right next to your shift key - that should block the SS from kicking in. And, to boot, piss off IT ;)

Reading about all those wonders of corporate, I can't help but be glad that my current employer is privately held. No quarterly reports that need fudging, much less strange policies... Life's great! ;) (Not to mention that our xmas party sports an open bar. Take that, Michelle's Ballroom!)

Apologies for double-posting - the server reported a 500 after the first post and didn't show it as posted. The second one gave a 500 and did show both. You've gotta love web services....

(Time to wield the FixIT magic! :)

No problem on the double post, groby, I'll correct it...

It's so cute you actually think IT cares if your workstation gets locked or not. Really, quite cute indeed. We really don?t give a shit. Our part of the compliancy gig is done. We will avoid massive governmental fines and get paid every other Friday just like the delicate geniuses of the world.

I will say this once, not to defend IT Folk, but to set the record straight.

From what I?ve been told, when you are audited for SOX compliancy, if you separate the money divisions (Accounting, Finance) from other aspects of The Company, you must pay for a completely separate audit. That equals two or more audits for one company. This can cost an extremely large amount of money to have E&Y or some other auditing firm come in and conduct multiple audits. Thus, most companies choose to enforce SOX compliance policies to the whole, rather then pay up to convenience the others. This is the standard practice.

Sure it?s a scam. Hell SOX as a whole is a scam when ya boil it down to the details and well, that?s unfortunate.

Life's a bitch.

I don't think IT (management - not talking about you guys in the trenches) cares if workstations are locked, no. And that's where the problem is - management *should* care. That's all I'm saying...