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View Full Version : HelpDesk Ethics


88fournine
Feb 21, 2013, 12:54 PM
You are a helpdesk technician with active directory control assisting a user who cannot access a site she says she's inputting the correct credentials info. You verify her password has not expired, so she must have forgot it, so you reset it to a temporary password. She still has the same issue, at this point is it OK to attempt to log in as that user to troubleshoot if it's the user, her connection, her device or something bigger?

Wondergirl
Feb 21, 2013, 12:58 PM
Have you asked your supervisor?

88fournine
Feb 21, 2013, 01:01 PM
Have you asked your supervisor?

It's an ongoing issue that the supervisor is aware of but this instance during an afterhours/oncall situation.

Curlyben
Feb 21, 2013, 01:01 PM
NEVER trust what a luser tells you as they often forget the most important of information.
Also you have missed the whole BASIC troubleshooting..
Do you know they are even connected to the network?

88fournine
Feb 21, 2013, 01:05 PM
NEVER trust what a luser tells you as they often forget the most important of information.
Also you have missed the whole BASIC troubleshooting..
Do you know they are even connected to the network ??

To get to the point, I had on other user with the similar issue, so I said maybe it's user error and she's typling wrong so I login as her with the password I just set on my computer and get the same page cannot be displayed error.

I attempt it with chrome and get a URL redirect error that helps the company solve the problem and then I get in trouble for logging in as a user.

Where do you stand on that?

Curlyben
Feb 21, 2013, 01:08 PM
So she can log onto to the domain, it's just a web site that's producing an error.
Is this an internal or external site ?

I'm not sure what you mean by

Where do you stand on that?

88fournine
Feb 21, 2013, 01:52 PM
I'm not sure what you mean by

The issue got figured out by my trouble shooting but now I get reemed because its not ethical to login as a different user. Its an abuse of power. I feel my time here getting shorter as I type this.

Curlyben
Feb 21, 2013, 02:06 PM
Unless you are working in a highly regulated area with serious privacy laws, i.e. banking, health care, etc, then I can't see why you should be in trouble for doing your job and using standard troubling shooting methods..
Ethics have nothing to do with it.
As an admin you already have complete access to users accounts anyway.
So they either trust you to do your job or they are looking for an excuse to dispense of your services cheaply..

88fournine
Feb 21, 2013, 02:33 PM
Unless you are working in a highly regulated area with serious privacy laws, ie banking, health care, etc, then I can't see why you should be in trouble for doing your job and using standard troubling shooting methods..
Ethics have nothing to do with it.
As an admin you already have complete access to users accounts anyway.
So they either trust you to do your job or they are looking for an excuse to dispense of your services cheaply..

Yeah...