[citation][nom]SAL-e[/nom]I call the assumptions made in this survey a BS. If the info should be seen by person A, B and C only person A, B and C should have access on the first place. If the IT has access and the John's account has permission to see the data ... well he has permission and it can't be called snooping. Only other way is for the sys admin to crack the security measures and this takes far more time then "free time on the job" average sys admin has.The result of this survey really means that 70% of the networks has not been configured correctly. You don't need survey for that they just need to ask any Sys Admin to confirm it.And don't get your Sys Admin angry. It could cost you big time.[/citation]
[citation][nom]supertrek32[/nom]"74 Percent of IT Pros Admit to Network Snooping""The survey found that 64 percent of UK IT professionals admitted to accessing information not relevant to their role, while 74 percent of U.S."Thanks for the sensationalized headline. Snooping is definitely not the same as looking at something irrelevant. Facebook is irrelevant, but I wouldn't call that snooping by any means.[/citation]
Do you have any concept of system administration? Lets break this down:
Unix systems - root = god of all. There is no securing files from it at the *SYSTEM* level. Non administrated certificate based or 3rd party user encryption is the only way.
Windows: Yes, you can "deny" the administrator from looking at files and what not.. however, SOMETHING has to access it for it functions, such as most network based backup systems that run as a user account that can see it, which IT Staff setup.
Both of those items pointed out, a database requires setup and Maintenance. Whoever administers that will need access for at least that much, which gives them the ability to see everything.
Bottom line, SOMEONE has to have the power to setup security measures, and therefore have the ability to turn them off or go around them. The only security "Measure" there can be is an audit log, which even then is setup by the administrator. As far as "snooping" goes, because it is done with out changing anything, its impossible to keep the sysadmin out, beyond the measures I indicated above, which means the system administrator wont be able to read the contents of the files, but also could cause issues with backup and other operations if there are shared files.
I've gone through 10 years worth of audits, and ITIL + SOX all acknowledge this known limitation of security.
Know what you're saying before you comment on it.