Sometimes. User may not have even realized he was doing something wrong. I always take first offense to the user quietly and say “hey, we work hard to keep the network secure, this kind of stuff leaves us open to certain risks. don’t do it anymore ok”
I find that usually works. Only twice in my 20 years did a user ever blatantly just keeping doing something I asked them not to do. Then it was off to HR with a ream of printed logs of what they were doing (and surprise, while I was looking I also found that they’d been coming in early to look at porns before everyone showed up…so those papers came too)
Ohh, that makes perfect sense, I’m dumb. I didn’t realize that you are looking at it from a security perspective. It’s kind of obvious to me now that you’d want to do this to protect your company’s data (even though it must be really hard and I feel like if anyone has an access to it they could find a way to sneak it out).
I was depicting more of like a huge open-space with people working on non-critical spreadsheets and writing your usual business emails and their evil employer depriving them of browsing reddit or something
If the point is to secure data, sure, makes sense. And if it would still be possible to use my phone for personal stuff I’d definitely do that. But if it is to restrict people from the occasional slacking I feel like you (as in the employer, not a network administrator that just has to implement whatever the boss’ say) are doing something wrong.
Sorry, no, I was talking about VPNs in general. I have no idea what HOLA is. Perhaps you could shed some light for me on it? — How does it compare to, say, simple port forwarding through an ssh tunnel?
Nope, no porn, no netflix. Just would like to listen to pandora or spotify to drown out the annoying noise of co-workers talking… Helps focus on work and not get drawn into outside convo’s that are less productive that the occasional spank fest…
This is where it makes a difference. If you had a corporate policy in place for things, then you already have something from management saying certain actions aren’t allowed; as such when you find an infringing action, you take it to management to deal with.
Hell, a good number of regular users still aren’t aware Hola specifically turns your PC into a botnet node. It’s just insidious like that, it does indeed work as advertised on first glance, but does more than you ask for without telling you.
But if it is to restrict people from the occasional slacking I feel like you (as in the employer, not a network administrator that just has to implement whatever the boss’ say) are doing something wrong.
Totally agree. And there are studies out there that show blocking Internet/social media/whatever harms, not helps productivity.
I work for a MSP as well. We inherit super fucked up environments. There is a reason we got hired, and the users are usually pretty jaded because of the shitty service the got before us. Do the un-fucking of the network in the background and change the culture by being nice to the people and working with them not against them. If they are problem users sure report that, but don’t be a coward and go crying to mommy without trying to resolve the situation first. I’m generalizing, but man people are confrontational on this sub sometimes. I hope they are just being internet toughguys.
But yes, I do believe what I said. Also, I never try to exaggerate my communication with management. I will not claim that a user installed a black-listed app unless I have logs to do so. Also, I do not waste time digging through logs unless it is a repeat offender. All I do is send an email saying “Computer X, which is assigned to user Y, has application Z installed which is blacklisted”. No additional elaboration required.
Now, if that single incident generates a pink slip from management, then I don’t want to continue working for management. I will look for work elsewhere. I like having stability in my employment… Maybe it’s just me.
