Hi! I’m SA! I’ll be your mentor during your stay at Innitrode! Actually, I’m everyone’s mentor here…anytime someone needs some information, I’m right there for them. I’m just that kind of guy, and I’ve been around, like, forever.
Let me show you around. Over here we have some tables…the Marko team has been using these to build their project data for sixteen months now, but since you’re with me, you can do anything you want with them. Don’t worry if you trip and spill your coffee all over…you’re authorized!
This door leads to the business center, where we keep the most important files and sensitive customer data. If we lost this data, we’d lose millions over the first week. We might never recover, actually! The disaster recovery around here isn’t exactly top-notch, if you get what I’m saying. The door’s always locked, but I have the key. Wanna go in? We could poke around a bit, maybe change someone’s SSN for fun, or “acidentally” shred a few dozen records! No? Well, let me know if you change your mind later.
Oh, excuse me for a minute. Hey Bob, are we still hanging out this afternoon? Smoke break in the data warehouse, 2:00, right? Cool man, see you there!
Sorry about that. Oh! Let me show you the building security center! It’s supposedly just for the guards and muckety-mucks, but they’ve never made one bit of noise about me bringing anyone I want in there. It’s neat….you can add new employees, grant them access all over, even “delete” parts of the building so no one can get in! Except me, of course. I’m SA!
Oh hey, it’s time for lunch! Let me make a few copies of my passkey and leave them in the lobby and on my desk. Somebody might need something while I’m away.
Fin.
Moral: The SA is open, honest, giving, and generous…with your database. Don’t make SA available to your people!
-Jen McCown
is ‘SA’ your shorthand for Excel and/or Sharepoint?
Ummmm, no.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188470(SQL.90).aspx
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQL+Server+2005+-+Security/2873/
I still have to support a commercial application where the tech support people at the vendor will not provide any support to this web-based app until SA account, with no password set, is used as the application account.
Cannot convince the client who runs this stuff that they need to replace it and their vendor.
That’s all too uncommon, unfortunately. Maybe we’ll have a whole series of these, make them into a comic strip and an after-school special. If we dumb it down far enough, maybe a few of those vendors will start to catch on… /snark
For some reason when I read that story I applied a very high pitched squeaky voice to the narrator and pictured Sean operating a Purple stuffed Rabbit.
Andi,
Time to up the meds, dear.
Pingback: Tweets that mention SQL Awesomesauce » Blog Archive » Hi, my name is SA -- Topsy.com
Dear SA,
If I ever catch you in my linked server mappings again, I will flea dip you in drain-o.
Hope you’re having a great summer!
xxoo,
Kendra
——
Dear Jen,
I loved your blog post. Please tell SA I’m really scary, though.
Yours truly,
Kendra