privacy

[Kyle Plummer]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to add.  There are some companies that use your first login of the
day like a time clock.  If you start at 8:00, why are you logging in at
8:15?  A crued timekeeper I know, but an indicator none the less.  Companies
needed to set policies for access, and security.  The issues are not if you
are playing Quake for 8 hours, but are you trading company secrets on the
Net.  Some companies do encourage downtime like game playing to help with
creativity.  But, are you searching the Net for the company, or to expand
your portfolio.  If a company has a tight clamp on access.  It's because of
a serious problem in the past, not because of some horror story in the news.
Security is an issue when you look at MS Win workplaces.  You need to screen
for viruses, and spam. ;-)  Most exploits come from within a company.
Seeing what others are making.  Looking in on someones research.  Hopefully
your job as a Net. Admin. is not on the line should something like this
happen.

Kyle

----- Original Message -----
From: "will" <willg at bluesock.org>
To: "Jerry Feldman" <gaf at blu.org>
Cc: <discuss at blu.org>
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2001 2:15 PM
Subject: Re: privacy


>
> My experience is that large companies (talking multiple sites with
> hundreds if not thousands of employees) tend to see Internet usage as a
> waste of employee time and employ fascist measures to reduce Internet
> usage.  There may be members of the company that are comfortable with the
> Internet--and even see the Internet as a very useful resource for speeding
> up work, but the company generally frowns on such things.  The Internet is
> scary to these people.
>
> On the flip side, I think this is mostly relegated to large companies and
> companies with a significant portion of older manager folks who haven't
> gotten their hands around the Internet yet.
>
> All the contracting gigs I've done so far have looked the other way in
> terms of Internet/network usage.  One company only complained after one of
> my co-workers built a server with 20 GB of mp3's and installed Shoutcast
> on it which a good portion of us listened to all day--they said we were
> producing so much network traffic that we were affecting access to their
> mainframe.  Oops....
>
> On the flip flip side, I own part of a company that specializes in email
> issues for litigation.  My advice to you folks is don't use email for
> anything exciting.  It will definitely come back to haunt you.  Course, it
> may help you greatly--depending on which side of the "we got screwed" line
> you're on.  Following that thought, it's very possible that companies are
> increasing their Internet resource usage policies in order to reduce risk
> to themselves.
>
> Thoughts?
> /will
>
>
> On Mon, 10 Dec 2001, Jerry Feldman wrote:
>
> > Many companies do look closely at people's Internet usage. During a
previuous contract at a
> > certain defense contractor, I know one Unix admin who was fired based on
his use of the Internet.
> > Even when one ran telnet, the telnet proxy came up with a warning that
this was to be used for
> > company business only.....
> >
> > Additionally, I was supposed to be writing device drivers. I was denied
root privs on the
> > workstation I was using to write the device drivers (as were employees).
After 6 weeks of
> > haranguing the IT people, they relented, but then went to security. The
rule was that I could have
> > root priv, but only when an emplyee was watching my keystrokes.
> > I left at the end of my contract eventhough this could have been a long
term deal wich also paid
> > relatively well. Too restrictive and too much crap. Another company
which also did government
> > contracts complained about my email volumes, since I did get a lot of
bounces from majordomo.
> > On 10 Dec 2001 at 9:39, Adam Russell wrote:
> >
> > > Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 10:05:56 -0500 (EST)
> > > >From: "Anthony J. Gabrielson"  <agabriel at home.tzo.org>
> > > >To: Dan Geer  <geer at world.std.com>
> > > >Cc: discuss at blu.org
> > > >Subject: Re: privacy -
> > >
> > > >I expect it at work - that doesn't bother me.  My home home machine
>w\o
> > > >knowing it, would bother me.
> > >      Errrr.......where exactly do you work? I for one would be pretty
surprised if *my* employer were log my every keystroke. Then again, I don't
work with money or nuclear secrets. But even so, I would be willing to bet
on more clever checks to my honesty than blindly recording *everything* I
> > would do.
> > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > PS: You should check out this great new site that I found. They've got
free
> > > movies, music, email. It's really great! http://www.netbroadcaster.com
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Discuss mailing list
> > > Discuss at blu.org
> > > http://www.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
> > Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
> > Associate Director
> > Boston Linux and Unix user group
> > http://www.blu.org
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at blu.org
> > http://www.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
>
> --
> whatever it is, you can find it at http://www.bluesock.org/~willg/
> except Will--you can only see him in real life.
>
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