There is a bizarre misconception in the modern workplace that company desktops and laptops are somehow the employees personal property.
Um, no.
Folks, if you think that you can load up whatever crap you downloaded from the internet and can basically surf the web to your hearts content, it’s time for a wake up call. Frequently I’m called upon to give new employees a “chat” about using simple common sense. Surfing the internet…yeah, your employers can see that. Sending corporate secrets to your buddy at the competition. Can see that too.
A few of my non-technical friends had their eyes opened when I ran a little demo for them while we were sitting around having a few beers. I simply set up a virtual machine on my laptop and browsed the web server on it with a sniffer running. It was a rudimentary application that asked for a username and password. Once entered I stopped the sniffer and showed them their password. Granted in most instances like this there would at least be SSL/TLS in place (for the marginal good that affords) but, then that would lose the “holy crap” effect that I was looking for.
Companies are watching.
From MacWorld:
About 40 percent of CIOs polled reported combining corporate policy with software that blocks certain content from employees. Another 27 percent said they have a corporate policy in place the details acceptable Web browsing by employees. Some 14 percent have software installed that limits employee access to specified sites and content, and about 17 percent have no policies in place to limit Web browsing by employees. And 4 percent restrict Web access for employees altogether, the survey found.
If you don’t know, you should find out what your company’s acceptable web use policy might be. Chances are that you were given to read when you started your job and skimmed it. I know that happens, I did it myself once or twice. And for (insert deity)’s sake. If you have a doubt in your head whether www.hot-german-girls-in-lehderhosen.foo is appropriate or not to access from the office, chances are that your gut instincts are correct.
Apply some freaking common sense when surfing the internet from your place of business.
[tags]Web Monitoring, Web History, Common Sense, Surveillance[/tags]
