Updated OP: I just lost my job for going above and beyond.

[edro]

Those of you in this thread siding with the company have no idea what you are talking about. I am a network engineer, and none of the commands he ran bear any resemblance at all to hacking. To claim he was hacking is absolutely absurd.

No one is claiming he is hacking. (except the boss)
We all know what those commands do... this is a tech forum.

Some of us are simply stating that the boss had a illegitimate reason to fire him... not for "hacking", but for improper use of company equipment.

 

[SparkyJJO]

OP is capitalism 101, the idiots get rewarded and the competent get shafted.

Stop spewing garbage and take it back to the P&N cesspool where it belongs :thumbsdown:

 

[Pheran]

Some of us are simply stating that the boss had a illegitimate reason to fire him... not for "hacking", but for improper use of company equipment.

Be that as it may, any place that defines that as "improper use of company equipment" is not worth working for.

 

[Acanthus]

Sounds like the boss got rid of you to eliminate the competition.

Companies, depending on the state, can usually fire you for anything except age, religion and sexual orientation. I don't think you did anything wrong. If my IT staff wasn't allowing people to use the command prompt we would block it with group policy, but it sounds like you worked for idiots, so good luck.

My state is not a right to work state.

 

[Saint Nick]

Be that as it may, any place that defines that as "improper use of company equipment" is not worth working for.

Seriously. Just "wow" at the OP situation.

 

[Remobz]

How did your boss know that you "hacked the network"?

Trying to score yourself an advantage in an interview is not "going above and beyond". You didn't do it to benefit the company, you did it to benefit YOURSELF. You could have talked to someone in IT, or asked permission before you did it. You chose not to.

Exactly!!

He was doing it for himself to get an advantage over the others. IF he knew so much compared to the others then why worry about not getting the job I ask?

 

[Exterous]

+1 for you not having done anything wrong. All the claims that is is fine because you were 'snooping' are retarded.

 

[Exterous]

It's no different than if you were snooping in your boss's desk.

Except that it was the computer assigned to him and not a desk assigned to someone else - a nominal superior at that. You really suck at analogies.

You needed a command prompt to get there. Just like opening an unlocked drawer.

Unlocked drawer? Please - what about the drawer by a copier? So you open it looking for paper and can get fired for "tampering with surveillance equipment". I think not

 

[Acanthus]

Exactly!!

He was doing it for himself to get an advantage over the others. IF he knew so much compared to the others then why worry about not getting the job I ask?

Because it was a large opportunity.

 

[sixone]

Except that it was the computer assigned to him and not a desk assigned to someone else - a nominal superior at that. You really suck at analogies.

Unlocked drawer? Please - what about the drawer by a copier? So you open it looking for paper and can get fired for "tampering with surveillance equipment". I think not

One would assume that if using the copier is part of his assigned duties, that reloading it when it's empty is, too. One would also assume that he wouldn't go looking in another employee's personal space, in hopes of finding copier supplies.

Using the command prompt is a duty assigned to someone else, so the analogy to a desk specifically assigned to someone else is a good one.

The suckage is yours, sir.

 

[bigrash]

Damn that sucks because you weren't doing anything bad. Unfortunately, you'll have a tough time explaining what you were doing to people who don's speak IT. Good luck.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Trying to score yourself an advantage in an interview is not "going above and beyond". You didn't do it to benefit the company, you did it to benefit YOURSELF. You could have talked to someone in IT, or asked permission before you did it. You chose not to.

This

It was def a shot in your own foot.

 

[Robert Munch]

And they'd be right. Helping someone else get their work done IS going above and beyond. In this case, your use of the command prompt was for YOUR benefit ONLY. You were snooping in a work area that you had no legitimate business purpose to be in. It's no different than if you were snooping in your boss's desk.

Obviously, this person does not work in IT and those comparisons are terrible. Shame on you.

 

[Remobz]

Because it was a large opportunity.

Could you have requested someone with GOOD IT experience (in authority) was there to explain to the others in simple English what you did?

Just curious........

 

[Acanthus]

Could you have requested someone with GOOD IT experience (in authority) was there to explain to the others in simple English what you did?

Just curious........

Probably not.

HR wasn't very accommodating in the process.

 

[Pheran]

Exactly!!

He was doing it for himself to get an advantage over the others. IF he knew so much compared to the others then why worry about not getting the job I ask?

This attitude is unbelievable. If I was interviewing the OP, I would applaud him for taking the initiative to try to learn something relevant to the position before the interview. That's a GOOD thing.

 

[crownjules]

Obviously, this person does not work in IT and those comparisons are terrible. Shame on you.

Right click Network Adapter -> Status. OH SHIT I GOT FIRED FOR THAT!

That's literally the comparison we're drawing here. The same thing can be done in Windows. The OP just went into the command line prompt to get more detailed info.

 

[Acanthus]

This attitude is unbelievable. If I was interviewing the OP, I would applaud him for taking the initiative to try to learn something relevant to the position before the interview. That's a GOOD thing.

That was my line of thinking.

 

[Mark R]

No one is claiming he is hacking. (except the boss)
We all know what those commands do... this is a tech forum.

Doesn't matter that everyone knows what they do. It may still be hacking.

Ask the IT consultant who's now languishing in jail because he put /.. on the end of a URL. He was convicted and jailed for "hacking" a charity web site. He was caught, because directly after entering that URL, he went and donated with his credit card.

 

[Remobz]

This attitude is unbelievable. If I was interviewing the OP, I would applaud him for taking the initiative to try to learn something relevant to the position before the interview. That's a GOOD thing.

All he had to do was ask!!! How hard is it to ask? Does it cost money? Letter from the President of the Company? argh!

Maybe if he asked then someone would of told him he could not do that or had to go through certain channels right?

At least he could of said, well Mr. Rogers in IT said I had permission to do what I did for example. Then the blame would be on Mr. Rogers right?

 

[Acanthus]

All he had to do was ask!!! How hard is it to ask? Does it cost money? Letter from the President of the Company? argh!

Maybe if he asked then someone would of told him he could not do that or had to go through certain channels right?

IT is not allowed in our department without special authorization from our Director.

Furthermore, the only other person whom could authorize had left the company, hence the open position.

 

[Ns1]

All he had to do was ask!!! How hard is it to ask? Does it cost money? Letter from the President of the Company? argh!

Maybe if he asked then someone would of told him he could not do that or had to go through certain channels right?

At least he could of said, well Mr. Rogers in IT said I had permission to do what I did for example. Then the blame would be on Mr. Rogers right?

why the fuck would you have to ask to use the cmd prompt? if you didn't want me to fucking use it, disable it.

 

[Vdubchaos]

This a security company? It sure seems like they got their crap together.

Chances are, someone hacked their network prior and probably used similar commands BEFORE they hacked it. So those commands obviously sent out alerts and notified proper people.

This company most likely took these actions based on their prior experience with their employees.

OPs boss most likely got a call from IT director stating that "one of your guys is about to hack our network or is doing suspicious things".Rather than take any kind of risk he got rid of you.

Can you blame him?

Just an unlucky situation for you. If they never had employees hack their network etc, chances are none of this would have ever happened.

Just don't tell us you were going up and beyond, cause you weren't.

 

[Robert Munch]

IT is not allowed in our department without special authorization from our Director.

Furthermore, the only other person whom could authorize had left the company, hence the open position.

Sucks to be in that position but, you'll be better off in the long run. That work environment seems like a joke and i'd be pissed too, if that was classified as hacking. D-bags.

 

[Pheran]

why the fuck would you have to ask to use the cmd prompt? if you didn't want me to fucking use it, disable it.

Exactly. If I decide it's quicker to batch-rename some files by using the command prompt rather than click on all of them, do I get fired too? Acting like the command prompt is some kind of IT-only voodoo is ridiculous.