COMPUTER TROUBLE

Last week, I gave away four computers to one of our supported charities. They're ever such nice people; they provide supported living for children who've left care or who have become homeless. Over the last year or so we've built up a really good relationship - I've become the contact for them and they've benefitted from charity initiatives we've organised here in the office.

I was advised by the IT department to ask the charity to wipe the hard drives and provide us with written certification that they'd done so. The charity told us that they could definitely do that, so last week they came in to collect the computers.

We stacked the old machines onto trolleys, wheeled them through reception and loaded their car with an array of monitors, cables and keyboards to go with the four desktops we no longer needed. That should have been that.

Then at the end of last week I got an email from the people at the charity asking whether or not they had to remove just the data (files) or the programs as well, not to mention the entire operating system (Windows 7). It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't really explained it correctly. They need to remove everything.

Like the moment when the camera zooms in while the dolly pulls back for a zoom fade, I felt the blood rush from my cheeks. Through a collection of miscommunications I think I have allowed company data out into the wild and I have no guarantee that I can stop it or get it back.

You might not think this a big deal, but it is particularly delicate as I work for a cyber-security company who focus on data loss prevention - I am massively embarrassed and more than a little worried that this might go badly wrong for me.

So, I've taken a few steps.

Firstly, I made myself accountable and immediately told HR about it. They told me that IT should have made themselves clearer about what needed to happen. I'm still a bit worried that I didn't have the intelligence to ask IT why they couldn't have just wiped the hard drives themselves... however, HR know all about it from the beginning - which might prove useful if I'm ever in the firing line.

Secondly, I've found a way to help the charity make sure the hard drives are wiped. Someone here has volunteered to visit them and sort it out, reinstalling Ubuntu and OpenOffice and other bits of freeware. Hopefully they'll take us up on that offer. As yet, my inbox remains uncomfortably silent.

Thirdly, I've blogged about it - and so now, you know. If you're the praying type, you could help me out if you wanted to - just by asking God to sort it out, and for me not to get fired. I would really appreciate that.

I like these three steps: Accountability, Repentance/resolution, Confession - ARC - stretching like a rainbow across the sky to a pot of gold... or my P45. If you're not the praying type by the way, wish me luck or something. Thanks.

I'll keep you posted.