Stupid user tricks: Eleven IT horror stories

http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=43856&PageMem=2

Security silliness
Security should be everyone's job, from CTO to administrative assistant. It's surprising how few organizations recognize this.
I think back to a time right after a fairly large network upgrade. All weekend, day and night, had been spent migrating a nightmare network from a hodgepodge of Windows 95/98/ME and even OS/2 clients with NetWare and Windows NT servers to a clean, homogenous utopia of redundant Windows 2000 Servers on the back and Windows XP Professional desktops on the front. Things hadn't gone quite as smoothly as we'd hoped, so instead of finishing up on Sunday afternoon, we were still putting final tweaks in place on Monday morning.
After we did our last test (making sure all local tape backups were working properly) it was about noon. (Most users by now had logged in, been informed that they needed to choose a new password in accordance with our medium-strong password guidelines, and had chosen a new password.) I stumbled bleary-eyed into the lunchroom for my umpteenth caffeine fix. Chugging my Coke, I almost missed it while mincing out of the lunchroom. But it grabbed my attention from the corner of my eye and caused Coca-Cola to shoot from my schnoz like some enraged soda dragon.
“Password List.” Yes, every user's new password along with IT and even some specific switch passwords had been printed out by a well-meaning secretary and posted in the lunchroom. After they pried my hands from her throat, she explained that she just figured it'd be easier to post them there than to answer all the phone calls when users inevitably forgot them. So she went around and collected them (in my name), built her list, and posted it.
Solution:  User training. Passwords should not be regarded as obstacles but as keys for very important locks. Users must be made aware of such concepts, not simply dropped into new environments. If the secretary had been given a clue, she never would have done it, but the only training this company ever gave her was how to use Word.
Moral:  Preaching may be a pain, but it can sure stop a lot of FUBAR stupidity before it gets very far.

Ultimate weirdness
This one won our Deepest Chuckle Award. Dave Schultz related an incident in which he tagged a note to a network laser printer informing users that if print quality suffered enough to warrant a toner cartridge replacement, they should first “shake a few times to yield a few additional copies.”
Schultz was later berated because a user suffered a work-related back injury by reading the note, then picking up the entire HP LaserJet 4000 and trying to shake the printer back and forth.
Solution: Shoot the user, he's lame now, anyway.
Moral: Never let your blood pressure get too far into the dangerous numbers and keep a bottle of Advil handy.