RE: Comcast Cable Setup Security Issue

["Andrew Aris" <andrew () dev bigfishinternet co uk>]

Playing Devil's Advocate for a moment here - tech-savvy users probably make
up a very small percentage of the calls that people like Verizon etc get so
it makes more sense to tailor the support to the majority. While I agree it
can be very frustrating when you have to go through all the basics with
someone who knows less than you do its just there is no other real way of
doing it - the cost of employing people with actual technical skills is just
too high to justify it when the majority of calls they get are probably
dumb-ass things that can be solved by a script can be followed. 

regards,

Andrew

PS: What really gets my goat is getting people who can't understand English
let alone speak it clearly. IMO that is a waste of everyone's time and
money.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: SMiller () unimin com [mailto:SMiller () unimin com] 
> Sent: 21 July 2004 17:40
> To: Seth Hall
> Cc: 'Gandalf The White'; security-basics () securityfocus com
> Subject: RE: Comcast Cable Setup Security Issue
>
>
>
>
>
> The phone techs (even at level 1) need to be smart enough and 
> knowledgeable enough to make a determination at least part of 
> the time that the user is
> computer literate and that script may not apply.   This business of
> employing near minimum wage, virtually untrained (I'm *not* 
> implying that this described you:) "techs" to inflexibly 
> follow scripts is nuts, and IMO increases costs the support 
> company as well as the customer.  Let me give you an example. 
>  I once used Verizon (then still Bell-Atlantic) as my ISP 
> (well, everyone is entitled to be stupid occasionally and I 
> did learn better).  I had my home computer and my work 
> computer set-up with dial-up access to 2 different POPs at 2 
> different phone numbers (different area codes, even).  The OS 
> at home was NT Workstation v4, and at work, Windows 95b.  
> When I was at work, there was no one at home, and no computer 
> was powered up.  If I couldn't access from home before 
> leaving for work, and could not access from work either, the 
> environment differences obviously eliminated a whole slew of 
> trouble possibilities, most of which were near the beginning 
> of the Verizon script.  How much time could have been saved 
> at both ends by avoiding such stupidities as making certain 
> the modem was powered up and plugged in?
>
> -Scott




---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethical Hacking at the InfoSec Institute. Mention this ad and get $545 off 
any course! All of our class sizes are guaranteed to be 10 students or less 
to facilitate one-on-one interaction with one of our expert instructors. 
Attend a course taught by an expert instructor with years of in-the-field 
pen testing experience in our state of the art hacking lab. Master the skills 
of an Ethical Hacker to better assess the security of your organization. 
Visit us at: 
http://www.infosecinstitute.com/courses/ethical_hacking_training.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------