Re: Interesting discussion on ServerFault regarding an idiotic auditor ...

On 28 July 2011 03:20, Douglas Handy <dhandy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Jim,

I would think that kind of request is a hacker seeing how stupid a security

manager can be..

It is either that, or an attempt to determine if the security manager can be
"socially engineered" and persuaded to give up information he shouldn't.  It
at least has a small chance of really being part of what they are testing.

But I give it much higher chances of being a hacker, and not really even
from the alleged audit firm.

It can't be a legitimate request from an audit firm as it would be
illegal for the firm to make it in the UK. If not illegal it would in
any case be unethical as it would seriously undermine the client
company's security even attempting to comply with it. Whoever asks to
see a plaintext password?

I give it a near zero chance of being a serious auditor who is serious about
requesting the information.  What probably troubles me the most is this
security manager would even consider trying to fake some data to hand over,
instead of steadfastly refusing to comply and informing higher ups and the
legal beagles.

Do we know if the poster is genuine? The whole thing sounds made up to me.