If you have surfed the internet for any legnth of time, there comes a time when you have either been spammed, infected with a trojan horse, a virus and the etc...But what do you do when in the process of your job you open an e-mail message from a trusted source just to find out that you have been spammed, and worse, its spam of a pornographic nature.  Recently I had a wondeful and lively conversation dealing with the problem of unscruptulus (error intentional) tech support/IT personnel.
    For most people, when this happens on their home computer, its pretty easy to get rid of and off you go.  Not so easy if it happens to be on a work computer.  Of course what makes matters worse is that you report it, and are treated by your companies IT department as a pornographer and they want to prove their mettle to their bosses.
    It has been my sad and unfortunate experience is that there are a group of "IT Professionals" that are less than professional and will not stop at anything to prove their worth to a company by pointing an accusing finger at anyone who either reports finding some porn on their system and/or convinces a manager that they have caught a group of people engaging in unscruptulus behavior.  In short who monitors the IT geeks and does the "average Joe" truly understand the enormorus power an IT person with  Adminstrator -Super user access has.
    If the average person truly saw first hand what type of power the IT department has, they would be afraid.  The good news is that most IT departments are staffed by very competent and professional personnel.  While they maynot attempt to harm a fellow co-worker, the potential for abuse is certainly there.  In short; Who is watching the watchers?
    In almost every profession, there are national codes and standards that a person who is affilated with has to follow, and to some degree has taken on the force of law.  For example groups like American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, and etc.. have written ethical standards that their members are expected to follow.  And if there are situations that these standards do not address, they are sent to the local board for clarification and subsequent ruling.  Ironically the one profession that does not have any standard ethic code of conduct is the IT community.  
    While the IT community has its local company standards, and competency certification standards (both of which are good so far)-It is lacking a uniformed and consistent ethical standards for which their members are to be held to.  There are criminal and civil laws that do cover computer commerce, and a persons behavior-but no standard industry wide code of ethics.  Of course who would be the best person or company to set this up....That being said, I propose the following:
   That representatives from the major computer, software and businesses get together at the next Science and Technology Fair to discuss it.  I would also include leading ethicists, computer forcenic sciencetists, philosophers, Psychologists, and theologians for their input.  People like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, "Supper Nanny", Dr. Joyce Brothers, and Judith Martin ("Miss Manners") to name a few.  Companies to include the US Military, SAIC, Comp USA. Client Logic and Namco.   With these personnel and varying points of view, a basic code of ethics can be set up for all IT personnel to follow.  While some activities in the IT realm are certainly criminal, alot of them are not and being able to prove malious activitiy is difficult to do.  But when the accusation of the IT department can possibly cause a worker to lose thier job or have their pay docked, and the IT departments conduct is not open for examination-It is time to say enough...
    Therefore I propose the following code of conduct as a start:
A)  All IT personnel with Administrator-Super user access will be required to undergo a background check to include fianancial and criminal.
B)  Any problems discovered by the IT department regarding the conduct of a worker (e.g. discovery of porn, criminal activity, etc) will be referred to the regional manager.  Additionally, random spot checks of IT personnel and the use of the Admin access will be conducted to see what sites they are visiting under a workers computer code.
C)  If a worker discovers that evidence has been falsified (or backdated), then the IT worker will be subject to the same punishment the worker would have received.  Up to and including termination.  In no case, does this excuse the company from possible civil liabilty.

This is only a start, and a code of ethics would be a great place to elinimate the fear that some workers have regarding the conduct of their companys IT department....

Point to Ponder:  With the increase use of computer technology, how feaseable would it be to hold the IT departments accountable?