Cloned computer with documents

[DebAmstutz]

One of the CSRs' computers died and our tech brought in a new machine and cloned it from another current Windows 7 machine.  There is an issue with the C: drive as it contains My Documents with items from the other person's computer.  This is not good as those items are not supposed to be shared with anyone else.  I know nothing about cloning computers, but should the tech have deleted all the files in the My Document folder before allowing the CSR to use it?  Or how is that handled?  I hate to think what would happen if he used certain other computers to clone!  What is proper procedure for cloning computers, anyway?

I want to inform him of the error and I want to let him know not to do that again, but I need some help in order to get him to understand that this is not what should happen in the future when a new workstation is needed in the agency.

Thanks.

[Gene Foraker]

I'm not entirely sure I follow your question, Deb.   Why should the docs not be shared?   Are they personal?   I don't feel personal documents belong on any agency owned computer.   Obviously, management needs to have some confidential records and docs.  Really, any important docs should not be stored on a local hard drive anyway.

[Sherry Burrell]

We have our workstation Documents folders redirected to the server so they are backed up, but I agree with Gene, no personal documents should be on any agency computer. 

[Mark]

#1 No documents should be saved locally on any company computer.  Ever.

#2 I personally only clone freshly installed and updated computers.  I can see cloning a "used" one in a pinch, though.

#3 Were these documents just in the root of C?  That should never be the case.  I'm assuming users have local admin then.  If you are not redirecting the documents folder, the documents should still be in the users specific profile (which I would have deleted before turning the computer over to a new user).  If this was the case, then the new user would not have access to these documents because they would be in the profile.  But, if they are local admins, they could take ownership.

There are a few things going on in this situation.

[Jim Jensen]

The only docs that I can ever see being an issue in this case are documents subject HIPAA being accessible by someone without a L&H license or documents with employee private information (which should either be in a limited access area of TAM or a password protected folder, or simply not be the computer to use an image. In either case, the My Documents folder is the wrong place for them. I don't expect a tech to know what can and can't be copied to a new image and kept, unless they are on the agency staff and are familiar with what documents are sensitive or not. I think the tech is completely innocent in this case. It's in internal issue within the agency and, at most, an issue about giving proper instructions to the tech.

[Mark]

Jim has a very valid point!

[Jim Jensen]

additional thought if these are personal documents --- the agency needs a Computer Usage Agreement that specifically indicates that since the hardware and software are owned by the agency, there is no expectation of privacy and all contents of the computer HD and email are subject to check by employee staff at any time. This can/should also extend to usage of the internet signal - subject to monitoring with no expectation of privacy. And installation of programs by employees is prohibited. 

I told my employees this years ago with the additional notation that they should have personal email addresses and use that for personal email, rather than their work email address. Yes, they get some personal email through the work address, but they know I check their inboxes when they are ill or on vacation.

The computer usage agreement and indication of no expectation of privacy is important in the event of needing to use information from the computer if firing an employee, or using the contents as evidence in a criminal case. Extending a little far here, but good example - I read a court case summary about a minister that was caught with child porn on his church computer. Arrested and charged, but because there was no usage agreement and no declaration regarding expectation of privacy, the defense successfully suppressed any evidence from the computer hard drive.

[DebAmstutz]

I don't know about personal documents, but documents from a separate agency within the building here.  I just wasn't sure about the protocol for cloning and wanted some information on that.  I'm guessing the tech may not realize that the computer used for cloning belonged to a different agency and would have items on it pertaining just to that agency. 

Thanks for the replies - I appreciate them!

[Jeff Golas]

This has been the story of my life lately...computer problem answered with a HR problem LOL. If a comp was cloned, the documents would come over but I'd think he would have set up a new user profile for the other user. Sounds like they're just generic PCs and not on a domain or anything.

Either way....if it was truely cloned like that, you may run into other problems especially when doing windows updates, etc. I can see doing it to get something going, but have him come back and fix it right!

[DebAmstutz]

There does seem to be a problem with TAM now losing the connection to the server on both of those machines.  I told one of the CSRs to get me the exact error message and I'll check to see what it means.

[Mark]

Probably need to deleted and recreate the TAM.ini on one or both of the stations.  Not supposed to clone a machine with TAM already installed.  Clone, then install TAM.

[Alice Mooney]

If the computer name was not changed on the clone, you should be getting a login error saying the computer already exists on the domain if the other is logged in, no?
Sorry if this was already mentioned and I missed it.

[Jim Jensen]

There does seem to be a problem with TAM now losing the connection to the server on both of those machines.  I told one of the CSRs to get me the exact error message and I'll check to see what it means.

I thought it was "another agency" in the building. Why are they on the same network?

[DebAmstutz]

I thought it was "another agency" in the building. Why are they on the same network?

It's a long, long story going back to before I worked here (and that'll be 12 years on Tuesday).