Comments on: How to hide your tracks at work

We all know that you play when you should be working. But at least we're here to help you hide what you shouldn't be doing.

[FrankQC]

Wow....

If I was the boss I'd rather see the people work than waste time on computer games. That's sad. I'd only allow them communications between emails but that's all.. games at work? come on.

[HappyBiled]

Any savvy person knows that running proxy servers costs money. Nothing is ?free?. Proxy servers need money to run and that money has to come from someplace. Unfortunately there is something about the word ?FREE? that turns a normally sane person?s brain completely off. It is the ultimate bait word, the proverbial ?raw meat? in a bear trap.

Further, it doesn?t help that free anonymous proxies have compelling copy; concise, informative and tantalizing.

Many anonymous proxies earn cash by showing Google ads on the pages as you use their proxy. This sounds reasonable enough, doesn?t it?

Unfortunately some of these free web proxies websites have flash-based ads that redirect surfers to malware scan sites. These sites then proceeded to ?scan? computers while actually downloading malware in hidden folders on the hard drive.

If you need anonymous surfing, be smart about it. Purchase a software program that provides safe, reliable, and secure anonymous proxy services.

In addition to Anonymizer I recommend looking at <a href=http://proxify.com>Proxify</a> and <a href=http://www.change-ip-proxy.com>Change IP</a>.

[Wink Junior]

I can't say how frightened I am that no one seems to mind this "Big Brother" kind of monitoring - the fact is that 10-15 years ago this sort of monitoring was way too difficult/$$$ to do, yet Good Engineers (and other employees) got work done. The way monitoring was done was simply by having managers make sure we were getting our work done, on time and correctly. When, where, how... what kind of breaks you took - nobody cared as long as you produced. Now we've become a 110% work environment country which results in nothing but burnout. Study after study shows that taking a quick break 1-2 times every hour actually makes people far more productive.

And the irony? I write this from home, because as of 1PM on Monday, the IT dept. "monitoring" systems messed up and locked me from any Internet access, which basically killed all the work I'm currently doing (researching facts to support issues/assertions in a report.) So now I'm working from home because all the oh-so-smart IT people who are busy trying to look over everyone's shoulders' and crack whips have locked me out at the office of any outside access when I'm on a tight deadline. So guess what? I'm at home, in my underwear, reading this thread.

Look, I understand the need, on a legal level, to make a "legitimate attempt" to prevent employees from using company HW/SW from breaking laws and regulations. But other than that, it's all about whether or not you get your work done; again, on time, and correctly. When it goes too far and cuts off legit use so that work can't get done, well, I'm sure the IT folks love that since it justifies their jobs - except that my boss is really angry and is going to make sure whomever in IT screwed up and cut me off gets reprimanded - and with so many unemployed IT people where I live - possibly replaced.

Oh, and I love the "locked down USB ports". So instead of working at home the last two days and being able to put all my work on a secure USB flash stick - if I couldn't use my USB ports, well, guess I'll email highly sensitive info via Gmail? Solving problems or creating them? Think about it, IT monkeys.

[Tom_T]

Where I work, it's impossible to load any app w/o an Administrator ok.

I would think an employer who allows employees to install whatever apps they want in a company computer probably isn't interested in tracking their web use.

[SDR13]

On a lighter note per the C.H.I.M.P. Rearview Monitor Mirror ($6.99)..
Instead of dropping the money on this custom item.. if you are a parent and ever had a car 'infant' rear view mirror, clip/lay that to/on your monitor, same result. Recycle. Reuse. right?

[dexter_birdbrain]

I tend to always think of our IT ("Tech Support") Services Department as an impediment to my work (as a Mainframe Analyst Programmer) rather than as an enabler of services. Here are some of the reasons -

1. They won't let me use Firefox or any other free softwares (xplorerlite, launchy, notepad++, outlook plugins like xobni, auto attachment zip, etc) that are NOT 'absolutely essential' to my work. They don't care whether any software increases my productivity or not. If it is not there on their list of approved and essential softwares, it CANNOT be installed on my PC. You cannot talk them into it either. They would ask me to go 3-4 ladders up the hierarchy to get an approval.

2. All bookmarking sites (foxmarks, delicious, etc) are banned. I have to work from home on weekends as well. So, it's a real pain to email myself a bookmark that I will need to use from my home.

3. Most travel (airlines, railways, etc) sites are also banned probably because they do not want the employees to go on paid leave!

4. I cannot download any manuals (for programming languages) if they are more than 1 MB in size. I am supposed to raise a ticket for them, send them an email with the approval from my manager to download the manual.

5. Every noon for 2 hrs my PC becomes a sloth because the darn rtvscan.exe (Norton Antivirus Scan) starts its scheduled scan eating up my CPU and memory. Add to that, a dozen IT management & scanning softwares like Altris patch management, Dameware Mini Remote Control, etc running in background 24X7 and my PC just behaves like a zombie.

6. All audio is disabled because they think we will listen to MP3s/WMVs. (Mind you there is no possible way we can get them into the PC because downloading MP3s is blocked by Norton firewall and USB ports are also disabled.) This also disables us from using an audio notifications for email or any other programs.

7. Our project team goes on quarterly picnics and 1-2 of us always take photos of the entire team. Tech Support will just not allow us to get those photos onto our machines or share them somehow. (Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket are already blocked by firewall).

I completely agree that there are idiots who download trojans, malware, viruses, etc and browse compromised & porn sites. These guys really need to be straightened. But why should others also pay a price? And you know what adds insult to injury? I have seen our own IT admin playing Counter-Strike with PC loudspeakers on and viewing porn videos late at night.

Who said life's fair?