Us!ng My 1337 @dm!n P0w3r5

At work I’m upgrading all the computers from Windows XP to Windows 7. I was looking at the short list of computers that are still left and found one called AccountingClerk. I thought that was odd, considering Accounting was the first department I upgraded. I connected to it via UltraVNC and saw that the user “timeclock” was signed in. I created that account for the computer to be signed into for computers that serve as time clock kiosks in the various buildings. Obviously this one was in Accounting at some point and someone, probably Travis, moved it somewhere else without renaming it.

Not being able to determine where it was by the computer name or the user logged in, I decided to leave a message for the next person that would use it. I saw that the website for clocking in and out was up and the last person to use it did so at 8:13am today. I opened Notepad and typed “Please call x4045”. 4045 is known company-wide as the IT extension. I was planning on asking the person who called where the computer was located. I saw someone move the mouse and close Internet Explorer, but then the mouse stopped and no one called. Okay, that’s dumb. I reworded it to “If you’re reading this, please call 4045. I’m trying to figure out where this computer is.”

A while later I checked and saw that someone was playing Solitaire in front of my message. I pressed the button on UltraVNC that disables their monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I figured that would get their attention. Nope, no call. I closed Solitaire and then enabled the monitor. The person closed my Notepad window, didn’t save it, and reopened Solitaire. *facepalm* I disabled the monitor and closed Solitaire and reopened Notepad and typed “I said to call 4045” and put the monitor back on. The person closed the Notepad window. WTF? Playing hardball, eh?

I connected to their registry and navigated to the screen saver settings. I set the screen saver to the 3D Text one saying “Please call x4045” and set it to activate after 1 second of idle time. You can only set it to that short of time in the registry. I left and took care of some other stuff for a few hours, then came back and asked Travis if they ever called. He said they hadn’t. Jeez.

I went back out to my car to get a computer out and saw Eva, the HR Director. I told her the story. She was intrigued and wanted me to let her know who it was when I find out, because she’s curious. I told her that they clocked in at 8:13 this morning. She said she can probably pull up the records and see who clocked in then. I followed her into her office and she looked up the records and we found it was someone named Tyler Mitchell. The name didn’t sound familiar, but Eva said he worked in the Auto Detail department. Ah, so that computer. She then proceeded to call the main receptionist and have him paged to call her at 4012, lol. He didn’t. She then called again and asked to have Darryl Emery, Tyler’s boss, paged to call 4012. Her phone rang and Jeff was on the other end. He works under Darryl. Eva said that Tyler had clocked in on a computer over there and it needs to be upgraded. Jeff said that his computer needed to be upgraded and that it has “this weird message on it to call 4045 or something”. She said IT would be over to upgrade it soon. She hung up and rolled her eyes at me and said “Well, we know his phone works and he knows how to dial!”

She said I shouldn’t be condescending when I go over, though, but she said I should thank him for at least calling 4012. I went back to my office and changed the screen saver settings back to go off after 10 minutes, but to be a scrolling text that reads “Thanks for calling 4045. Well, actually you called Eva at 4012, but close enough.”