Police, Patient Data, and the Locked-Out Laptop: A Real-Life IT Drama Unfolds
When you work in IT support for a company handling sensitive medical data, you expect the occasional password reset or printer meltdown. What you don’t expect is to start your Monday morning with a request for audit logs, a surprise visit from the police, and a front-row seat to an accidental Law & Order episode. Yet, that’s exactly what happened to u/KorenSolust, whose story on r/TalesFromTechSupport had techies everywhere clutching their coffee mugs with a mix of horror and delight.
It all began like any other shift: a request from a manager to lock out an employee and pull their access logs. But what unfolded next was a masterclass in digital sleuthing, office drama, and the power of layered security. Let’s dive in.
To set the stage: Our hero, an IT specialist at a medical company, was tasked with disabling User1’s account and compiling a detailed log of their activities—standard procedure for a company swimming in patient records, care plans, and high-stakes data. What wasn’t standard was the reason: User1 had apparently been up to something on their time off, and their manager wanted to know exactly what.
“I’m used to these requests,” wrote the OP, laying out the steps: disabling accounts, revoking logins, pulling logs from everywhere—Entra, Intune, Teams, CRMs. But when User1 appeared at the IT desk demanding to be unlocked—face going white when told to “ask your manager”—the plot thickened to the consistency of cold oatmeal.
Cue the manager, who whisks User1 into a meeting room, blinds drawn, laptop left behind like a crime scene prop. That’s when things get interesting. Two strangers show up—no visitor badges, but police IDs at the ready.
“Was told you’d have a laptop for us, was User1’s correct?” asks Officer 1.
Suddenly, the day goes from ‘mundane IT admin’ to ‘evidence chain of custody,’ complete with clear plastic bags and business cards with official police emails. As OP (a self-confessed Law & Order fan) hands over the laptop and logs, the officers join the manager and User1 in the soundproof room. Twenty minutes later, User1 is led out in handcuffs.
The manager, now free to debrief, thanks IT for playing their role in the sting: “We wanted to lock him out while he was in the office so he’d bring the machine to you.” In other words, it was all a carefully orchestrated operation to catch User1 red-handed, device and all.
A week later, the juicy details come out: User1 had tried to sell confidential company data on the darknet, only to be lured in by a security firm posing as “buyers.” The files User1 handed over were encrypted CRM exports—useless outside the company, but the security firm had a special read-only build (provided as part of the company’s security bounty program) that could decrypt just enough metadata to prove the files were legit. The kicker? Each file had the exporter's name embedded in the code, making the culprit’s identity “signed, sealed, delivered,” as one commenter quipped.
The community’s reactions were as entertaining as the story itself. “If only the Law & Order ‘Buh Bum’ sound were played at the top of every scene change in real life!” joked u/OinkyConfidence, perfectly capturing the episode’s dramatic beats: blinds closing, police showing up, laptop bagged as evidence—buh bum!
Others shared their own cloak-and-dagger tales. u/KelemvorSparkyfox recounted a director’s favorite abusing account privileges to approve his own purchase orders, ultimately reselling company hardware for cash. “Cost the company a decent chunk of change,” they said, proving that IT often sees the best (and worst) of office intrigue.
On a more serious note, several commenters highlighted the emotional toll of these situations. “I get called on now and again to perform ‘immediate suspension of access’—it sucks when it’s someone you’ve worked with for years and quite like,” admitted u/ThunderDwn. Locking out colleagues, especially under a cloud of suspicion, is hardly the fun part of the job.
The technical details behind the sting fascinated the community. Some wondered how the security company could decrypt the files. Was the encryption weak? Not at all, clarified OP and others: the files had layered encryption with harmless metadata in the header for verification, while the actual patient data remained locked down. As u/Aggravating-Major81 eloquently explained, “The trick is to keep the header minimal, signed, and non-sensitive, while embedding a unique watermark or canary token that ties back to the user and device.” Honeyfiles, layered keys, and SIEM logging—this was security by design, not by accident.
And of course, there was the classic IT grumbling about chain of custody, with u/Squickworth insisting on a “receipt for confiscated devices” and refusing to leave until someone at HQ signed for the evidence. As any veteran admin knows, protecting yourself with a paper trail is just as important as protecting the company’s data.
By the end, even the original poster had to laugh at the twists and turns. “One hell of a Monday to start the week,” they wrote. The community agreed, with u/blahblah19999 predicting, “Someday you’ll be the old dog telling this story to the young cyber guys. And you’ll actually have a good story.”
So, next time you wonder if IT support is just about fixing printers, remember this: sometimes, it’s about outsmarting data thieves, working undercover with the police, and keeping patient records safe with a side of high-stakes drama. And yes—sometimes, it’s about having a story that’ll keep the break room buzzing for years.
Have your own tales from tech support? Share them below, and let’s keep the (safe, encrypted) stories coming!
Original Reddit Post: Interesting audit log check request to start the day.