IT boss left root session open for bring-your-kid-to-work day
A veteran IT worker's Halloween goodwill gesture backfired spectacularly in the 1990s, according to a story shared with The Register's "Who, Me?" column. An IT boss at a company running an IBM RS/6000 Unix machine left his terminal logged in as root while his young children played in his office during a family-friendly trick-or-treating event, unwittingly exposing critical business systems to a curious nine-year-old.
The boss had started the day's data processing early to avoid disruption once the children arrived, then left the root-privileged terminal unattended. His daughter, having recently watched a film in which a girl saved the day by typing "SHUTDOWN" into a Unix system, decided to try it herself and proudly told her father it had "worked just like in the movie." The company's decades-old BASIC-based software, some of it 25 years old at the time, was left in disarray, and the boss reportedly spent 36 hours repairing the damage.
In short
- IT boss left a root terminal unattended near his children
- His nine-year-old daughter typed "SHUTDOWN," mimicking a film
- Fixing the resulting damage took the boss 36 hours
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The IT boss was attempting something genuinely valuable: making his workplace family-inclusive on a special occasion. He showed thoughtfulness by scheduling data processing early to minimise disruption, and the resulting incident should be understood as an honest mistake rather than recklessness. In the less security-conscious 1990s environment, this represented a reasonable attempt to balance competing goods, and a proportionate response would acknowledge the good intentions and learning opportunity rather than treating an understandable lapse as professional failure.
The case against
Certain professional responsibilities are non-negotiable regardless of circumstances. The IT boss knew that untrained individuals would be present in his office and still left a root-privileged terminal unattended—a fundamental breach of information security practice. The 36 hours of system recovery required demonstrates that this was not a minor oversight but genuine damage to critical business infrastructure. Professional accountability means security protocols cannot be flexible; good intentions do not excuse lapses in protecting systems one is specifically responsible for safeguarding.
Explained simply
Root is the most powerful account on a Unix computer, with permission to change or stop almost anything on the system. IBM’s RS/6000 was a range of computers used by businesses, and Unix systems often ran important company software and data processing.
The key players are the IT boss, who was responsible for the computer, and his young daughter, who was curious about what she had seen in a film. The incident highlights why access to powerful accounts is usually kept secure and why unattended computers can pose risks, even in a supervised workplace event.