The Security Expert

by ComputerBob

February 11, 2003

Years ago, I did PC and network support for a multinational corporation. One Monday morning, an entire department was suddenly hit with a computer virus that one employee had gotten on his laptop when he had allowed his son to browse the Internet on it over the weekend.

Four of us headed to that building and swept through the department, disinfecting every computer. When we got to the cubicle of the guy whose computer had caused all the trouble, he wasn't there, and the laptop was turned off. I powered it up, and it immediately asked for a password to continue.

The other three guys wanted to move on to other computers, but I told them I was going to try to get into the password-protected computer. Ten minutes later, they came back to find me smiling. I had gotten into the computer and had disinfected it.

"How'd you get into it?" one of them asked.

I said, "Well, when you've been in this business as long as I have, you learn a little something about psychology and people. You look around the guy's cubicle; you see the pictures of his wife, his kids, his pets; you look for the awards that he's won; the clubs that he belongs to; the things that are important to him, and then...

(lifting the laptop and turning it over)

...you find the little Post-It note with his password, stuck to the bottom of his laptop."