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Maintenance Report

13 sep 2000

During my scheduled maintenance procedure of the facilities in the Computer Room, I found the following disturbing problems:

  1. The Internet PC has been re-formatted without authorization. It is to be noted that the PC’s in the computer room are PUBLIC computers. Many teachers put vital information into these computers. No student or teacher should REFORMAT these machines without prior approval of the teacher assigned to the task.
            The Internet PC has a password protection feature.The person who reformatted the hard disk did not understand the LINUX operating system on the computer, and thought that the PC was not functioning. There is a serious defect in security of all PC systems which cannot prevent a maliscious user from reformatting hard disks.
  2. The Club’s only INTERNET link has been erased.
            Since the INTERNET STATION was damaged due to incorrect usage by an unknown person, we have depended on this INTERNET PC for our Internet Connection. Now we cannot access the INTERNET from the Computer Room.
  3. The School’s WEB SITE files have been completely erased without permission of the Web Master.
               The total disrespect shown shown by this person shows his insensitivity towards our past computer usage rules.
  4. Certain time-dependent files for maintenance of the School’s WEB site has been erased, and can never be re-installed again. Some files on the students' work are erased forever.
  5. All the network cabling has been removed from their proper place.
            The person who did this has absolutely no understanding of networking.
  6. All the cabling to the INTERNET Station has been removed from their proper place, making it very difficult to re-fix the INTERNET Station when it is returned from service. (It is currently sent to PC Partners for fixing). Such cabling should only be handled by the teacher in charge of maintenance.
            The person who did this does not seem to understand the function of the INTERNET STATION, or the need to maintain the appearance of the existence of this facility to gain marks for the school during inspection.
  7. Our Installation of LINUX has been erased without authorization.
            The person who did this does not seem to know what is the LINUX operating system, or how to use it. All our work on LINUX prior to this is deleted, and we have to start all over again!
  8. Many of the plugs to the computers have not been pulled out of the wall sockets. This is necessary as a protection against lightning strikes.
            The person who did this has a faulty understanding of electricity, and has too much faith in lightning protectors.
  9. Our backup data hard disk has been reformatted.
            Since there is vital data in the hard disk, a hardware protection system prevents the user from gaining access to the hard disk until the data has been transferred to a new data disk. Unfortunately, there is a weakness in all PC systems which does not prevent a maliscious user from reformatting the hard disk.
  10. All our Club Historical records of activities, reports and correspondence from 1995 to 1999 has been deleted.
  11. Some of our data bank material for preparation of examination questions have also been erased forever.
  12. All our School Examinations data, namely school exam results, reports and analysis from 1995 to 1999 has been deleted.
            We have guarded these historical data tightly over the past five years. This includes our master records and backup records. Someone who is insensitive to the need to preserve such records had deleted them without thinking of the consequences of his actions. We no longer can retrieve these data electronically, which is something we were proud of in the past as one of the advances in our school.

Acts such as these can be classified as a form of vandalism, what we call intellectual vandalism. Everything that made our School Computer Club the envy of Computer Club Advisors in other schools in Negeri Sembilan has been erased by someone who does not understand the history of the advances in our Computer Club.The computer literacy in the school is so low that a conman can come into our school as a hero, claiming to be an expert, but is really a Trojan Horse let loose to destroy all our data and equipment. Such unprofessional acts of carelessness and ignorance is not a mark of an expert! How long will the school take to learn this bitter lesson? Till all our equipment has been rendered useless? Let this lesson be a wakeup call!

I hope that in the future, all teachers using the computers in the computer room should carry out their tasks responsibly and with due respect to all users of the computers. New teachers should not be given full access to our computer room facilities until after a probation period. The Computers are PUBLIC computers, and not for the personal needs of any teacher or student. Ignorance of these procedures is not an excuse for carelessness.

Thank you.

Teacher in charge of Maintenance for year 2000

Mailto : smjkchanwa@po.jaring.my

Created By SMJK Chan Wa

Computer Club Students & Internet Team

Officially Launched on April 1999