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I recently got a call from a new client who fired their previous IT guy (and their office manager). They asked me to do all the usual stuff like change passwords, remove remote access, etc. One thing that I noticed is that their server is being backed up using CloudBerry Backup to an Amazon S3 bucket. The problem is the owners have no idea what thier AWS account info or password is. We looked at their credit card statement and found charges from Amazon Digital which makes me think that they ARE paying for it with their credit card which is good.

To my surprise, there is no way to contact Amazon customer support unless you have an AWS account. I created a free AWS account so that I could find a way to get some help. I get to the Contact Us page and a nice little message informs me that I am a Basic subscriber and I am not entitled to 1 on 1 support.

What can I do to wade through this mess? I can’t even cancel their subscription. Not that I want to. In fact, I’d love to keep it but there’s no point in continuing to pay for something that they can’t use in the event they actually need it.

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Ah, the joys of the “Cloud” ; )

Worst case - just stop paying for it…the account will get cancelled and you can open up a new one and re-configure the backup. But that’s worse case.

I know this isn’t going to be much help, but I have to assume that AWS has some sort of protocol for this as I would argue that your companies corporate data is technically considered “at risk” in the current state. Amazon can argue of course that it’s your companies fault for not knowing/tracking the password, but I have to assume that Amazon provides some sort of way out of this?!

I was in this same scenario at an old job, not with a cloud service, but a piece of Accounting software that we couldn’t access after a Controller got fired. He was super-mad about the whole thing and refused to give his old boss or the owner the password to access the Accounting software (which only he knew - issue #1 for sure!). I called him up personally and made a plea (as a “friend”) that his actions were not just impacting the people he was mad at, but also impacting the people at the company that he liked - e.g. ME! At that point he gave it to me. All this to say, maybe reach out to the employee that got fired and see if he will give it to you. Note that I believe there is legal precedent for dealing with this kind of password “hoarding” too…

Hope this helps - JM

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I appreciate the advice. I actually tried calling the office manager who was fired. She has retained a lawyer and will no longer talk to anyone from or representing the company. So that was a dead end. The IT guy who was a 3rd party like me refuses to answer emails or return any calls.

My fear is that he still has access to their information via Amazon S3 and is somehow using that to help his friend (the former office manager). I may just call Visa and ask them to decline payment from Amazon Digital unless I can get through to someone at Amazon.

It’s so often that when I need to deal with a giant corporation like this I feel like I may as well write my needs on a piece of paper, roll it up, put it in a bottle, and throw it into the ocean hoping they will help me.

I thought someone from Amazon might read this and say, “Oh hello my name is please give me a call so I can help you sort all this out.” Then I realized I must be dreaming. So I woke up and made some coffee.

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Adding to what Jeff Miller stated regarding cancelling the account and starting a new one.

Why not create a new account and start backing up THEN cancel the existing? Maybe once the new account is established you can explain to Amazon support and they might be able to provide a work-a-round.

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Or, at least with the new account you will have access to 1-on-1 support from Amazon and can work to either reset the original account or transfer information to the new account.

Cheers

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Options are these:

  1. Create new account and attempt to get help that way.

  2. Take to their forums with a free account and appeal for assistance.

  3. Call any of their customer service numbers and see how often you get transferred and maybe you’ll get to the right place.

  4. Have the client contact their legal person to start contacting the other party’s legal person.

  5. You might be able to see if the Amazon legal department can offer any assistance.

Amazon Legal Department

P.O. Box 81226

Seattle, WA 98108

phone: (206) 266-4064

fax: (206) 266-7010

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Someone should be getting emails from amazon when the account gets invoiced, etc. I assume you have taken over company email account for those that have left and you have not seen any such emails? Looking through mta logs for the entire domain would be the next step to try and find any emails from amazon. Basically, once you have the email address for the account, you should be able to go about resetting the password. If the ding dongs that set this up used a personal address, and you don’t know it, then you are kind of screwed. I cannot imagine that amazon wouldn’t help you if you need the billing information for the account though.

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Thanks for the help guys! I totally agree with what SteveFL, Steven (StorageCraft), and BudG said. I had the same thought about just calling any Amazon phone number I could find or pleading my case in the forums but honestly I’m so busy I didn’t want to spend hours on hold, getting disconnected/transferred, etc.

We did have the company’s attorney contact their attorney but of course their response is when a judge orders us to provide any information we may or may not have we will immediately do so. Of course, I can’t wait until some court date next year (and they know that).

I think I will create a new (paid) account, get access to support, then see what Amazon says. If all else fails I’ll setup CloudBerry to use my new account.

I have control of the company’s email and domain name, which was a battle of it’s own! I’m pretty sure the ITguy set up a gmail account like: companyname@gmail.com and used that to create the Amazon S3. The full email address shows up in the registration info of the CloudBerry program.

What does give me some hope that I sort this out with Amazon is:

  1. I know the credit card number (and billing info) used on the account.

  2. I know the email address associated with the account (even though I can’t access it).

  3. I also know the AS3 BucketName and Access Key but I don’t know the Secret Key (hidden by asterisks).

I don’t think payment for AS3 is setup under his company’s account because it’s being charged to this company’s credit card. Maybe Amazon will help me if I can supply them with all that info.

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Best of luck to you, John! Let us know how it turns out.

Cheers

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Billing for Amazon Glacier and S3 show up as something like Amazon web services so I am not sure what Amazon digital would be. At least on AMEX.