With the holiday season fast approaching and the proverbial goose getting fat; it would seem now is an appropriate time to remind your staff of some basic electronic security rules.

1. Be wary of opening emails from recipients you either don't know or weren't expecting.
2. Never forward emails purporting to be virus warnings or alerting you to a hoax. 
3. Do not open any executable files received via email (e.g. .exe, .bat, .pif, .com)

If you're ever in doubt about any aspect of an email you've received, contact the IT department before proceeding.

Often you'll be sent virtual greetings cards, screen savers or a dancing santa for your desktop.  Do not follow these links or install any software.  You have no reliable way of verifying that such items are not viruses or some form of malware.

     

Possibly the most important task you have when starting with a new company is to check the existing documentation.  I personally consider it a matter of professional pride to ensure all systems are fully documented and a hand-over pack is left in the safe for however comes after me, but not everyone is so inclined.

At least the following should exist, or be created by you within days of starting :

1. Key Passwords, such as the domain adminstrator, service accounts for SQL or Exchange, admin passwords for 3rd party systems etc.  How these are stored is up to you, I always include a reguarly updated "cheat-sheet" kept in the safe (I'm assuming here you have a dedicated IT safe, you don't want to be sharing a safe with accounting or some other department).
2. IP Addresses.  Whilst most clients will probably be DHCP, servers and routers won't be.  You should have notes of the IP addresses and an overview of the hardware.  Visio is great for producing simple overview network diagrams which can cover all this information.
3. License details.  License management can be difficult at the best of times, and without adequate documentation you open your employer up to potential legal difficulties if you can't prove you have the pre-requisite licenses for all the software you use.
4. Hardware log.  I always keep a list of all hardware; client, server and network.  Whilst this might seem like a chore initially, it's pretty easy to keep up to date and can be invaluable when planning upgrades or justifying new hardware to management.

What else do you document?

     

At present velocity, we're planning to launch 1 January 2008.