Browsing whilst at work...IT guys GTFIH

[Freakazoid]

Originally Posted by JayKay335i

You dont always get a warning. My IT buddy was fixing a computer via remote access. The guy was out to lunch. While he was waiting for some stuff to load he wandered through his emails and found an "off color" joke. He was canned by the end of the day.

writing and sometimes receiving an off color joke is a big no-no (especially with big places), that's something completely different. I'm talking about browsing non work related material, and/or viewing possibly NSFW content (but not actual porno). These are 99% of the time warnings.


and oops must have 'accidentally' copy pasted the URL hahahah

(and no i truly have no idea where that URL goes, someone feel free to try and let me know)

[ideliver]

As an employer, we are watching, it doesn't take much to do

[MangoConChile]

where i work all outbound traffic is 'monitored' and a report is generated 'monthly'. its all done at the firewall level so there is no way around it. i would highly recommend anyone going around these type of filters as its a sure way to get axed. just use your smartphone.

[solefald]

most of the time stuff is monitored, but is not watched.

as a sysadmin i can tell you that i don't give two shits about what you do at your desk all day. digging though someone's dirty laundry and their work habits is not my job, unless they do something so profoundly stupid that someone else (usually management) would have to involve me.

Yes, some (many?) companies actively monitor and go though the logs to see what you are doing. but I will never work at one that does. if you don't want your employees go somewhere, block access. do not actively monitor every thing they do.

But as far as sysadmins and network admins, we do not look through your shit even though we can, and we would know EVERYTHING you do. We have other stuff to worry about. But please, don't piss us off, its for your own good

[andyl]

I got a question for you network admins, if I was on gchat or gmail sending chat/email msgs, my company wouldn't be able to see the messages on the firewall since it's going through SSL? they will only see that I'm on gmail.com, is this correct?

[solefald]

Originally Posted by andyl

I got a question for you network admins, if I was on gchat or gmail sending chat/email msgs, my company wouldn't be able to see the messages on the firewall since it's going through SSL? they will only see that I'm on gmail.com, is this correct?

that's correct.

[Want]

If you use their Internet connection, they'll know exactly which sites you visit. They don't need any fancy programs installed for that.

Don't even try to circumvent their filters or anything like that, it's usually against company rules and can get you in trouble.

It's probably safest if you avoid OT forum, but you'll probably be ok. =)

[fdsasdasdf]

Originally Posted by jlspeed29

how would one know if they are monitoring?

You don't.

Assuming they run their own DNS server, every website you go to is stored directly onto there whenever you try to resolve an IP address.

The reality is that they have more important things to look for than what you, individually, are doing. If you are causing legitimate problems legally for the company or causing legitimate network performance problems, then they will be asking you what you are doing.

Basically that was the whole shbeel I got in our yearly "Network Security Meeting."

[radix]

Originally Posted by andyl

I got a question for you network admins, if I was on gchat or gmail sending chat/email msgs, my company wouldn't be able to see the messages on the firewall since it's going through SSL? they will only see that I'm on gmail.com, is this correct?

No, they can still see your encrypted traffic via a MITM attack. Look up bluecoat.

[FDfranklin]

Every company is different, just make friends with someone in IT and don't ever piss anyone off in that department.

[M3Bahn]

[Maestro]

As people pointed out, it depends on the company, but any company can easily monitor any and all traffic coming and going from any computer on their next work. Some companies use a proxy server to route all traffic, the primary purpose if to keep people form direct connecting to the internet and having a hacker backdoor his way into your computer. These proxy servers also log all traffic come and going. Some are even able to take a snap shot of the website and have content filters, so if a website contains material which they do not think it is suitable it will automatically block the site.

Even if your company does not use some sort of proxy server, there are all kinds of other products on the market that any IT department can have hooked to the network that you will never know about. They just sit there and monitor traffic from every computer connected to their network and the amount of information they gather various.

If you company requires you to connect to the web via a proxy rest assured your activities is being monitored. However, even if they are not using a proxy, they could still be monitoring.

Now my experience has been they do not actively monitor, meaning someone is not checking the logs to see what people are doing, they set filter to tell them is something unusual is going on. However, if they are looking for a reason to get rid of someone you can bet they will pull the log history on ever computer you had access to.

[jlspeed29]

all very informative posts guys...
thanks

im not doing anything illegal by any means...just killing time on slow days and was curious

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by JayKay335i

You dont always get a warning. My IT buddy was fixing a computer via remote access. The guy was out to lunch. While he was waiting for some stuff to load he wandered through his emails and found an "off color" joke. He was canned by the end of the day.

I agree you do not always get a warning, however, you can not be let go for receiving. This was told to me by a Lawyer who specializes in employment matters.

Now what you do with it once you receive it is left to be discussed. If you did nothing or left in your email or even deleted again you should be fine. Now if you respond to it, again could be an issue, if you forward it to other employees you could be definitely in trouble.

This happen to me in the 90's, my brother-in-law was the master of what should not be sent around the office. He was new to the internet and email and he sent everyone in the family totally inappropriate emails. Most time they just went to the personal email accounts. Over time I sent him emails from my work account, so that email address got added to his list. Any time I got one of those emails at work I deleted it, I knew better. Well one day, I open one and this guy walked up behind me and saw it and asked me to forward it to him.

I knew him and he was okay, I asked for his personal email address and sent it that account, but I first forward it to my personal account since it was not copied to that account originally and I deleted the forward information from the work account. Then I forward it from my personal account.

Well this idiot turns around and send it to his work account, and proceed to show some Asian woman this email (it was pictures on Japanese girls in those Micro Bikinis) needless to say the woman was totally offend. She turns around and reports him to HR, well during their investigation of the email they saw in the email header another company email address, mine. Luck for me the HR guy was cool and he knew me well and call me up and told me what was going on. When he showed me the email and said it had a work address, I proceed to show him it was actually sent from my personal account to that guys personal email which they did not catch at first.

Anyway, I was told to be care and the idiot was put on probation.

[NBRider88]

Originally Posted by jlspeed29

I full access on one of my "unregistered" computers at work that is not monitored by our company....HOWEVER, I am required to run a "backup" and submit a disc every month...
that being said..
what are they actually looking for?

the program they run is NovaBACKUP..
I browse with mozilla in private browsing that way i dont have to worry about deleting my history....and FWIW I run malawarebytes and CC cleaner once a week


any thoughts?

on occasion, i peruse the ITT You Fap Thread on slow friday afternoons hahahah

The reason they are having you run a backup is not to monitor what you are doing, it's to protect your files in case your hd or other system part breaks down and you don't loose all your/company data.

[Freakazoid]

Originally Posted by NBRider88

The reason they are having you run a backup is not to monitor what you are doing, it's to protect your files in case your hd or other system part breaks down and you don't loose all your/company data.

good call on addressing this part of his question. 99% of the seperate 'backups' that a company might want to perform on your machine is simply to make sure all work is saved.

However if they're going to that level to ensure protection, chances are they're also monitoring that traffic.