Best Buy is scanning Geek Squad computers for signs of porn infestation, as part of their continuing witch hunt. According to reports from four different Geek Squad employees, an edict was issued from corporate requiring precincts to connect every computer in every precinct to Agent Johnny Utah.
Agent Johnny Utah is the code name for the Geek Squad’s remote troubleshooting software. Usually it’s used so that outsourced Bangalore workers can scan customer’s computers for spyware and viruses and such. In this case, Geek Squad agents at headquarters are using the remote system to scan the Geek Squad precinct’s computers for porn and mp3s taken from customer’s hard drives.
One tipster doubts the efficacy of the search:
…the search will no doubt reveal almost nothing company wide.. certain machines not plugged in, certain harddrives not plugged in during the search, etc… so they will come back with an all clean in a week, and the problem will continue.
Another recounts:
Every techpc in the company was hooked up, and had specialists from corporate office scan them for customer files and information. Our harddrives came up red-flagged and got sent to corporate, but they didn’t get the motherlode, because the pile of customer information/porn/unlicensed tools/windows XP ISOs/MP3s were on a seperate HD that somehow didn’t make it into the scan.
Tipsters also report that managers are not connecting their computers to Agent Johnny Utah without first giving Geek Squad agents time to erase any porn or mp3s.
Best Buy’s investigation is an encouraging step in the right direction, but uprooting the porn pilfering problem will require confronting more deeply seated issues. We asked one tipster what Geek Squad could do to permanently reform its culture. His response? “Stop hiring sales people and hire real techs that get paid tech wages.”
PREVIOUSLY: Best Buy Fires Geek Squad Supervisor Following Negative Newspaper Articles About Porn Pilfering
(Photo: rofflcopterr)
Beyond – you wrote ” the district manager would get a week to a month of notice, and a few days before the store would put sign up extra shifts, clean up the store, hold meetings and go over policy.
The guy had to know the store was putting on a show. It just didn’t make any sense to me. “
As a green lieutenant, one of my additional duties was ‘security officer’ for a my AF unit. I had to conduct an annual inspection of all classified documents for mismarked or expired material. That inspection was announced months in advance. When I laughingly asked the CO, “Why do they do this? We will never find anything!” He pointed out that the ONLY time a safe got cleaned was the week before the inspection…
It’s likely the reason for the visit wasn’t to find problems, but to get the manager to put some effort into preventing them.
This is why i hate the biased reporting on this site. No matter what they do to try and correct the situation they are in the wrong. Yet the guys in the comments who admit they steal data, look through customer data etc. are in the clear? WTF
It may be interesting to for some of you to know that Best Buy Cooperate has been sending inspectors to Precincts unannounced to search Precinct PCs. We had one such individual show up at our store. No one knew he was coming, not even the Services Manager or the Geek Squad Supervisor. We have also been given new rules for how data backups are performed.
@nightshadowon: Any Geek worth his weight in gold (erm motherboard trace lines) knows how to hide his porn. My favorite method is c:> delete *.*
Any Geek worth his weight in gold will know that “delete” is not a valid Windows command and that if it were, it would only delete the files in the C: root… “del” does not support recursion.
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“We asked one tipster what Geek Squad could do to permanently reform its culture. His response? “Stop hiring sales people and hire real techs that get paid tech wages.”
Brilliant!
Also, whats to stop them from just grabbing a Western Digital My Book World II WDG2NC15000N (It’s a 1.5TB External Hard Drive featuring a USB 2.0 connection and a 10/100/1000 Ethernet Connection) and dumping all the stuff on there?
You folks who are commenting that computer techs wouldn’t steal porn, they’re too busy/know where to find it elsewhere are missing an important point. Speaking as a person who works on other people’s computers frequently, you’d be suprised how many people keep naked pictures of themselves & their significant others on their computers.
I don’t care how how well paid you are or how professional you are, if you are a male and a very attractive woman asks for your help backing up the files on her computer and you see a directory called “naughty pictures,” you’re going to (at least) look at those pictures and the invasion of privacy has happened. It’s human nature. I don’t know how you can prevent this.