" These Aren't My Files!

“These Aren’t My Files!”

Normally, when you log in, you start working in your home directory. If you type the following line, you return to the home directory from whichever directory you may have roamed to:

cd

If cd doesn’t get you back home, you may not be who you think you are. Try typing whoami or who am i. If someone else’s username appears, your computer thinks that that’s who you are! A coworker may have logged in to your computer to do some work for a moment.

You then have several options:

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  Send some malicious e-mail, which will arrive looking as though your coworker sent it. Delete all her files that look important, and then log out and pretend that nothing happened.

  
  


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  Log out without fouling anything up, and then log in as yourself. Type this line:

  
  

  
  logout
  

  
  

  Maybe you have to type exit or just press Ctrl+D. At any rate, when you see the login screen, log in as yourself.

  
  

Most courses in business ethics tell you that the second option is preferred by all except the slimiest of bottom-feeding MBAs, but the urge to send goofy e-mail is sometimes irresistible. Remember: You may be caught.