MUBAR! A Cautionary Tale

Patrick Davies • September 6, 2024

MUBAR – Mucked Up Beyond All Recognition! 
Patrick Davies, Engagement Officers Hot Take.

What’s your plan with your organisation’s admin when the faecal matter hits the rotating blades?  Well, we’ve had a couple of our Member organisations find out.  In one organisation the admin person (it was a very small org.) has unfortunately passed away. The organisation, friends and whanau are in mourning and, as we know, the world does continue turning. 


And, as usual, someone is there to step into the breech. But. One problem suddenly arises. Where are the passwords? Yup, the admin nightmare. As both organisations used Gmail, they found it impossible to gain access – you don’t know who the back up email is (you know, the one you can send the ‘reset password’ to). Regrettably these organisations no longer have access to all of their emails, online google documents and need to start again. 


MUBAR – Mucked Up Beyond All Recognition! 


What if your admin person was hit by a bus and you no longer had access to that person to ask them how to get into email, Mailchimp, SurveyMonkey, Facebook – all the 100s of applications that your organisation might be using? 

 

Create a process of recovery, which can come in many forms – 


  • A ‘Hit By A Bus Document’ outlines all the processes that the admin does. From how to get into the phone message to when to expect bills and from who. This is a general kind of soc that has non-secure information in it. Imagine it got left on a bus, would there be anything in there that you wouldn’t want public. 

  • Password apps – here at CNA we use My LastPass for free. At the start of each day, I open my MyLastPass with my password and I get a window with all my applications that I can click on and open. So, my one password gets me into everything, and my boss has a sealed envelope with my password in it in case something should happen to me. 

  • But Paddy, what if someone steals your laptop – won’t they have access. 

  • No, they won’t. Because my big password is not saved on my laptop. 

  • Remember you should be changing your passwords every year if not 6 months. That’s why using an application can help, as it randomises your passwords and also updates them at the same time. 


So have a sit down with you folk and look at what you would lose if they fell off the planet. Then set about putting in place ways to recover form that. 

It’s like insurance – hopefully you will never need to use it; but when you do you will! 

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