Why YSK: It appears several Lemmy Instances are flagged as suspicious and at least 1 instance intentionally using the name of ransomware. A couple of the big enterprise monitoring suites (Fortiguard, ZScaler) will flag your account and may end up with you being pulled into an office for an explanation, or worse.
TL;DR: Keep browsing to your local instance at work for now.
Browsing personal sites, especially social media, on a work computer is insane
Insane? I wouldn’t go so far, everybody has downtimes from time to time, unless you are doing something crazy… It is fine.
So why not using your personal phone instead?
Really depends on the place of work. I work in the IT of out company and my PC isn’t monitored. My door is constantly open though and there are a lot of people passing. Me looking at the screen is normal and part of my work. Me looking at my phone is always seen as me not working.
Nah
Cool, good sources… Thank you!
Just don’t use a work computer for anything but work. Use your personal cell phone and don’t use their wifi.
It constantly surprises me how many people use their work computers as as if it was a personal computer. They’ve got family pictures, shopping, browsing, socials, everything. I’ve tried mentioning before, in a roundabout way, but people really don’t care. And then when they get laid off or quit then they’re shocked as hell once the computer’s remotely locked and wiped and then they make a big stink about how all of their stuff was on there. It’s like what did you expect to happen.
My work phone is specifically partitioned to separate personal and work activities. I can’t even copy and paste text between the two sides, they are so disconnected from each other. This is done specifically so people can use their work phone for personal business without cross-contamination.
I still refuse to use my work phone for anything but work. I only log into my personal accounts long enough to install/update a few apps from the Play Store that aren’t allowed on the work side but are still useful (MS Teams, WhatsApp).
Part of that is not wanting to enter a 12 character password every time I want to do anything simple . But the other part is that I just don’t want to mix my personal and work lives more than I have to.
The reason I used to use my work PC for online purchases/personal finances because the network at my employer was much more secure than my home network. But it was a smaller company back then, now that we’re “corporate” (partnered a larger entity) I don’t.
Porn, so much porn
Or use VPN
Just don’t
Most corporate networks block vpn traffic.
Why would people not just use their phones? I would never browse any social media on a work computer.
I had a lady in the marketing department open a ticket with us many years ago when ILoveYou was running rampant and we had blocked yahoo mail, gmail, etc on our corporate network and she was PISSED because “I need to access that for my other job!”. Yes, she put that in the ticket. That was a brief discussion with her manager and a resume generating event for her.
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Ironically I would have been happy to help her figure out a solution had she not been a complete and utter bitch about it. Instead she got her ass fired for misusing company resources. I suspect her boss was looking for an excuse, 'cause this woman was a 100% Karen stereotype.
“Resume generating event” - that took me a moment, but then I laughed
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That only helps if you aren’t on company wifi. Guess it’s time to stop misusing the corporate wifi password I shouldn’t have.
A VPN would be fine, no?
Most corps block vpn traffic, I know there are ways to “tunnel” traffic to get around this but I’m not very familiar with them
I use my own Internet for my phone. No point messing with work Internet unless necessary.
Right? I dont want the nerds at IT to find out where I get all my free porn.
We have a guy who isn’t in IT who goes through Peoples’ email and shit here, so I’m definitely steering clear of their internet traffic here.
That’s insane and should not be possible
Employer email, employer network, etc.
Possible and legal, just a fuckin’ scumbag thing to do. Real creepy when he jumps in on an email to reply to something you sent to someone else.
No, if he’s not in IT it should not be possible - I don’t know what email system you’re using but this person should not have the access you’re saying they do.
I’m not saying it shouldn’t be technically possible (I’m a sysadmin, I know what’s possible in a corporate environment), I’m saying your organization should not make it possible.
If he’s in some leadership position I’d be looking for other employment and/or reporting that person to your corporate compliance officer if you have one.
Yeah, well. He’s in admin, and I don’t feel like searching for a new tenured position. I’ll just skirt shit until he’s gone. And by then, keep skirting shit anyway.
Exactly. Use the work equipment for work purposes and there is no issue.
This is the way. My work tends to block a lot of websites that aren’t relevant to the job anyway.
Why do people use work computers anymore when cellphones exist?
I don’t even connect to my work’s wifi
See I’d connect, but it would be on a VPN the whole time.
I’m visiting other companies for work every now and then.
If they are in a fancy new steel-and-concrete office building with open space offices, chances are that cell reception is very bad. I once was in an office where I’m certain they had installed cell blockers on the toilets.
I think my workplace had that until they realized that it also stopped management from being reachable. Fucking lol.
They might work in a place that doesn’t allow personal electronic devices (government, military, high-security site, etc.).
I worked for a small earmold company that made hearing aids and plugs. The PC I used had zero security. I decked it out with every possible imaginable tool to make my job easier, even had it where I could vpn in and do work from home, and while I didn’t utilize this feature, the ceo’s son did after I told him about it for a few weeks after I quit.
Our HR manager constantly asked for email counts each day, so I automated a spreadsheet for her. I set a webcam up in an office with a laser engraver so I knew when the staff would put molds down for engraving without being in the room. I had syncthing cloning directories and a virtual desktop. I’d often model blender models on lunch and sync them back to my nas. Sometimes I’d make custom things for the company, then 3D print them and bring them in the next day.
I had waaaasay too much power, though. I could go pick through the company samba server, look at anything, potentially delete everything. They kept backups on dated copies made on external drives and deleted everything four years old.
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I’ve worked a job that required using an app on my phone, and in order to install that app I had to give ROOT ACCESS and full remote control to the IT department and was subject to the same monitoring as when using a company desk or laptop. I just grabbed an older phone I had lying around and used that for work because I wasn’t about to give complete remote access to the phone I actually used every day.
Pro tip: Don’t do not-work stuff on work owned hardware.
Or while connected to work networks
I used to sign in to my personal accounts on my work computer. And then a place laid me off and remotely locked the computer before I could sign out of anything, and I realized I had been stupid.
Now I just use my phone. But I also work from home so there’s no one to creep on me and report I’m looking at my phone instead of click clacking away.
I imagine the socialist/ML and pro-union content also plays into this (speaking as a socialist/ML and extremely pro-union, mind you). Corporations hate and are terrified of any sort of dissidence that threatens their profits and will absolutely police your activity on it. Weirdly enough Western “freedom of speech” doesn’t seem to extend to this kind of stuff in practice, can’t imagine why.
More likely op being a dumbass and using work resources to fuck around on the clock.
Plenty of people feel fully entitled and justified to fuck around on the clock. Some of them are in this comment thread.
The company firewall very likely is using a “content filtering” function which for Sonicwall, for example, is a subscription service where the admin can select any number of “categories” of content to block. I found lemmy.world was being blocked because Sonicwall had that domain categorized as “gaming” which was disallowed. I reported the error to Sonicwall that it should be “social media” but haven’t heard back (it takes a while) but some companies might block that category also. In short, it might not be blocked because of any positive action by your company but instead by accident because whoever first classified the site didn’t understand what it was.
I’m less worried about what they actively block with an in-your-face “this content is forbidden” screen and more worried about what they might silently flag to my supervisor, tbh. They’re unlikely to block pro-union content, for example, but might silently track who’s going on those kinds of sites.
Your personal security concerns are valid but every company is different, and it seems most people don’t work at a firm their whole lives anymore so there is less trust and less loyalty and decency, really. In my case the wifi given to employees for their personal phones is totally segregated from the work LAN so while it is definitely monitored and protected in the same way, its far less of a concern for company security. It is also throttled so watching videos is almost impossible, it blocks a hoard of malicious stuff (which makes using it safer for the user than when they leave), and many of those using it are on cheap limited plans so they might not be able to leave their comms open to their family or check the location of their kids during the workday, or even get updates otherwise. Many use it to stream radio stations or listen to podcasts usually into earbuds. Properly classified porn sites, etc. are blocked. However, I recently heard there will be changes imposed on us from above and all these users may soon be kicked off this wifi entirely. Managers and office workers will certainly be still allowed to use it but the people who really need it? I guess they are SOL.
Yea, and the filters are not that accurate either.
Tried to login into Telegram at work, and it was blocked for terrorism lmao.
Gave me a scare, but never got a talking to about it.
The only people to know about it would be IT, if we even have an alert for it (we generally don’t) because we don’t care about someone trying to access something is blocked, we know its blocked so its no threat. Things we care about are real security concerns like when your machine suddenly is downloading a bunch of exe files, connecting to a database server in Brazil, scanning the network for open file shares and running powershell scripts to encrypt every file it finds. Most well-set-up places are running endpoint protection now though so the first thing you’ll notice is you will lose your internet. THEN you might get visited, but by then you’ll probably be calling us since nothing works LOL
The other day I was on all and there was fucking porn without any NSFW filter on it on some cumsluts community, no co-workers were around thankfully but it was a good wake up call that all is not a place you wanna be unless you are at home.
Why in the heck would anyone browse any social media on your company machine?
That’s the whole reason I left Reddit because it forced me to have to use Reddit on a computer and it’s one of the first things I remind new hires not to use social media on company property, it’s always monitored from keyboard to Internet connection.
Good lord people…
I used to do social media marketing for a company. I used a company computer for that ¯\(ツ)/¯
Because it’s fine?
Yeah some companies might monitor what you do but:
a) It’s not that common or not that detailed as some people imply it
b) It’s mostly for detecting malware or breaches, they don’t care about your social stuff.
c) Most people just check normal stuff in social media nothing to worry even if somebody from works check it
d) People have downtimes, checking Twitter or similar for a little while it’s not a firing offense…
e) Most of the time is not checked by anyone except if something flags it. Which again usually is set for malware and breaches not if you spend x time on YouTube or Twitter…
Yeah…use your phone if you can… But some people are painting this as the end of the world like the untouchable the forbidden fruit.
Coming from IT:
A: Disagree; it’s logged, analyzed, and stored in the name of efficiency.
B: Yes, but also no. Stopping malware is the original idea. But why would a business stop there when they can pressure 2% more time out of you by assigning ametric for everything?
C: Fair
D: It is if there’s budget cuts/Boss dislikes you. Leaving evidence of you not working on company time can be an anchor around your neck.
E: Yes, until no. See D.
I agree using work internet for personal shit isn’t career suicide, but it just opens the door for shit that isnt needed. Frivolous work internet usage is an example of “Free to those who can afford it, very expensive for those who can’t”.
Just use Data if you can, or shitpost after your shift
Well, you should be using a VPN for privacy anyway, so that wouldn’t be a problem.
This is why we have a Palo Alto firewall. All internet traffic from a single PC being tunneled over a VPN would set off some flags and quickly be remedied. Good, modern firewalls can do what are essentially “man-in-the-middle” attacks to snoop on traffic. If this was prevented by a VPN it will be immediately known.
“You should be using a VPN” is not universal advice. It’s not up to you when you do not own the internet connection you are using.
Unless you’re handing your phone over and letting them root it, they almost certainly are not MITMing your traffic. At best, they can see you’re using a VPN. If they are able to snoop your traffic, either your VPN is absolutely shit, or you changed some setting you shouldn’t have and fucked yourself.
omg people, dont do personal stuff on your work machine or connected to your work network. A vpn wont save you from all the software they install in your machine to track you. Use your phone with your mobile data.
You put a VPN on your company phone?
You’re using personal software like Lemmy on your company phone?
No, I was asking if you did
That was my response. You shouldn’t be doing personal tasks on a work phone. Has that ever been a thing corporations wouldn’t immediately fire you for? VPN or not, NSFW or SFW, don’t browse Lemmy or other social media on your work devices. Ever. Depending on who you work for, it could even be highly illegal, especially if it’s a government job.
There’s some at mine that don’t even have a personal and I don’t get it. You leave and have to change your number and deal with all that crap plus if you have to have an account sent you a text.
They told me that was an option an I was like Fuuuuck no, I keep that shit separate. I still get calls on my work phone when the previous guys kid needs to be picked up from daycare.
TL;DR: Keep browsing to your local instance at work for now.
YSK even the local tab on any instance will load many transcluded images from other instances.
if you’re worried about your employer monitoring for suspicious hostnames, you’re rolling the dice every time you do any personal web browsing (outside of sites that don’t transclude 3rd party images, like wikipedia, and, ironically, facebook…).
I’m against transclusion. Unless that clusion is inclusion, then I’m for it.
Better idea… you could work. Or use a VPN on your phone.
Yeah better not take a break and use the phone while on it.
By all means, please do. IT departments can look for this type of traffic and report it to HR, which saves the company money.
I find it funny that people seem to think that browsing reddit at work is ok, as long as it’s not porn. I don’t think employers see it that way.
Working is stupid
Tell me how else I’m supposed to afford food and a place to live!
Just make sure your parents are billionaires.
Plot twist: it’s 2009 and you’re in zimbabwe
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While VPNs aren’t perfect, vpn and DNS over HTTPS will help you avoid this.
Be careful though, as many companies also flag VPN usage as suspicious by default.
If you’re just looking to hide from your employer, you might want to consider self-hosting a VPN/HTTPS proxy server, or, for more technical users, self-host a VPN/proxy server that forwards the incoming traffic through a commercial VPN. If you use a commercial cloud hosting platform, all they can really see in that case is that you’re accessing, say, a Digitalocean server, which can also be for any number of benigin websites. Make sure you have your VPN client set to connect over port 443 (the normal HTTPS port) and not the official OpenVPN or Wireguard port, as well as use the networking interlock (internet killswitch) feature that disables internet access without the VPN connection active.
Still not perfect obviously, but I imagine better than using a well-known commercial VPN directly. Or, you can always just use cellular data/hotspot for personal browsing and completely prevent your employer from seeing it.
I’m glad my work doesn’t care what I do online as long as I get my shit done. It’s not the highest paying job in the world, but perks like that keep me there.
Not caring what you do on your pc, within reason, is not the same as not monitoring for dangerous actions that could endanger your network or company (and client data). I don’t care what my colleagues do on their pc either. As long as it doesn’t cause me more work.
Logging security incidents is work. So we do block a lot of websites and keep an eye on what you try to run. If we see something wrong we just talk to you and explain why we don’t want you to do that. 99,9% of the time everybody is happy after that.
The idea of this being something you can get fired for or that’s taken into consideration for your evaluation is insane though. We have rights as workers. Keeping the network safe means I can see some extent of what you do. Your boss or their boss has no right to that information unless you state you will continue endangering the network. Even in that case I wouldn’t even tell them the websites tbh.
…y’all can’t seem to break your reddit habits for shit 😂😂😂😂
This, this thread is basically this songs bridge exemplified. 😅
