Dear Career Coach:
I'm the sole IT person at a small printing company and I'm in a jam. A manager has asked me to delete the mail account of a former employee who I suspect is considering legal action for wrongful termination. Should I do it?
On the Spot
Dear Spot:
You're in an awkward position indeed, but there are no laws against deleting e-mail unless those messages constitute records needed to support business transactions or tax records, according to Network Computing technology editor Sean Doherty, our resident attorney. Business records should be destroyed following a systematic and documented procedure to eliminate even the appearance that the information was deleted because of its evidentiary value.
In fact, it's common practice for IT shops to cancel terminated employees' e-mail stores. Just be sure to get the request in writing from someone with authority, to avoid any potential liability issues. This discussion would be moot if you had a data-retention policy for your organization--see "The Rules of Electronic Record Keeping".
Dear Career Coach:
I'm considering a switch to the field of computer forensics, but I'm a self-taught network admin with no certifications. I know about the SANS Institute and ISC2, the security certification organization. What do you think of boot camps?
Future Forensicologist
Dear FF:
Forensics is a great career choice! The U.S. Bureau of Labor cites computer security as a fast-growing field, and job boards and links like those on the High Technology Crime Investigation Association (htcia.org) and the SANS Institute attest to this.
Security Focus, which maintains Bugtraq, has a mailing list for forensic professionals that comes highly recommended by Tony Arendt, HR manager at Neohapsis, a Network Computing partner lab. He also says you should read a discussion about a career in forensics at Security Focus online.
Experts have mixed feelings about boot camps, which cram intense training into small periods of time. Boot camps are "great for dipping a toe in the water"--you can find out if a field is for you without investing a lot of time, says David Foote, president of David Foote Partners.
Arendt, though, says boot camps let people with no practical experience get certifications. He adds, however, that routes for IT pros to get forensic experience are limited, so such camps can be valuable (he recommends looking into Intense Schools' camps).
Find more on certifications, including boot camps, at techweb.com/tech/ebiz/20020905_ebiz and www.nwc.com/1216/1216f3.html
Send your questions to careercoach@nwc.com
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Game Plan: H-1 Bye Bye
In the late 80s IT companies lobbied hard to increase the number of H-1B visas, which let foreign nationals work in the United States. This year, the number will remain stable at 195,000. But in fiscal 2004--which begins Oct. 1, 2003--H-1B visa quotas will revert to 65,000, unless tech-industry lobbyists succeed in persuading the feds to up that number, a move bitterly opposed by unions and some out of work IT pros. Find more on the H-1B flap at h-1b.newstrove.com, www.zazona.com and workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/foreign/h-1b.asp.
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