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Big Brother

  • 29-01-2010 12:32pm
    #1
    anamcarame
    Closed Accounts Posts: 139 ✭✭


    I work for an organisation with an open network. Ther are some PC's on the premisis and lots of lap tops. Some bring in their own laptops from time to time. Apparently the boss was notified about a large amount of spam which was being sent out from us. In order ot find out how this was happening, as he said it could be spam sent to personal laptops being bounced on to our network, he has started to monitor the usage. Hes now referred to as 'big brother' and the rumour is that he can seek the daily traffic. He can tell what people are looking up and even read emails. Apparently this guy is no stranger to hacking himself. So is it possible that he can monitor what we are looking at, emailing etc. Could he have access to out mail passwords? someone has said that if we use this network wiht our personal laptops we are leaving all our information open for him??? It could be all idle gossip in a bid to ease the misuse. Any comments??


Comments

  • #2
    Spear
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Help & Feedback Category Moderators Posts: 25,758 CMod ✭✭✭✭Spear


    anamcarame wrote: »
    I work for an organisation with an open network. Ther are some PC's on the premisis and lots of lap tops. Some bring in their own laptops from time to time. Apparently the boss was notified about a large amount of spam which was being sent out from us. In order ot find out how this was happening, as he said it could be spam sent to personal laptops being bounced on to our network, he has started to monitor the usage. Hes now referred to as 'big brother' and the rumour is that he can seek the daily traffic. He can tell what people are looking up and even read emails. Apparently this guy is no stranger to hacking himself. So is it possible that he can monitor what we are looking at, emailing etc. Could he have access to out mail passwords? someone has said that if we use this network wiht our personal laptops we are leaving all our information open for him??? It could be all idle gossip in a bid to ease the misuse. Any comments??

    Of course he can see every single thing that's done. Every site visited, every packet sent, every device connected. And as owner of the network it's his right to do so, if not his duty and responsibility.


  • #3
    roberthurley14
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 105 ✭✭roberthurley14


    yes im afraid under the DPA (Data Protection Act) if hes the owner of the network he has full right to monior user activity with programs such as WebMarshal etc...as for the hacking thing, hes probably just good with a PC, hacking is illegal for the most part and as of such is just now a Buzzword people use to say theyre good at IT even though they cant hack...


  • #4
    anamcarame
    Closed Accounts Posts: 139 ✭✭anamcarame


    This is slightly different as he is not the owner of the network at all. the owner of the network is not on the premisis. He is just a staff member but in a management role. Our fear is that while it is very lax here and its widely know amongst staff and management that we all use the net for personal use, can he access our personal email? Everyone here uses it at some stage, including management. It is not an issue. This guy is particularly nosey and has boasted about being able to see everything. Could he see transcripts of chat or IM? Can he get our passwords?

    One girl is convinced he has got inot her bank account. Can he view our personal email even if we use our our laptops?


  • #5
    Spear
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Help & Feedback Category Moderators Posts: 25,758 CMod ✭✭✭✭Spear


    anamcarame wrote: »
    This is slightly different as he is not the owner of the network at all. the owner of the network is not on the premisis. He is just a staff member but in a management role. Our fear is that while it is very lax here and its widely know amongst staff and management that we all use the net for personal use, can he access our personal email? Everyone here uses it at some stage, including management. It is not an issue. This guy is particularly nosey and has boasted about being able to see everything. Could he see transcripts of chat or IM? Can he get our passwords?

    One girl is convinced he has got inot her bank account. Can he view our personal email even if we use our our laptops?

    If he has the owners permission then he can still monitor the traffic. He can see everything that's sent, including potentially picking out passwords. If he then makes use of those passwords to access your mail/banking etc, then he's committing a crime.


  • #6
    kc66
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,267 ✭✭✭kc66


    He would have no right to access personal email eg gmail, hotmail, whatever. If you have a company email address he would have a right to access that, assuming he is in some way responsible for email administration within the company


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  • #7
    Snowbat
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,065 ✭✭✭Snowbat


    anamcarame wrote: »
    This guy is particularly nosey and has boasted about being able to see everything.
    That's what I'd say to the users if I wanted to discourage illegal or abusive activity. Just because he can doesn't mean he does so routinely. If he really wanted to harvest passwords and evesdrop on IM and email traffic for juicy gossip, he'd have said nothing. I expect his only concern is to find the machine responsible for sending spam and to get it off the network until it has been cleaned up.

    If he doesn't stop the spam, the ISP could suspend internet access or block port 25 traffic which will cause problems for everyone on the network. A computer on the network infected with a spam sending trojan may well have other types of malware installed - packet sniffer, key logger, probe for other exploitable machines on the network... it is a threat to you all and needs to be removed ASAP.

    He won't be able to do anything with encrypted traffic - communications with https websites (eg. online banking) and IM and email services that use SSL are reasonably secure. If you want to monitor your own traffic, install something like Wireshark.


  • #8
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,581 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    In theory Eircom could cut the company off if someone downloaded three songs. When it comes to downloading the rule is guilty until proven innocent :(

    If there was any illegal activity across the company internet connection then the company could be liable unless they could show who the culprit was. This is why it is necessary to be able to monitor all traffic on a network you own.

    Most spam comes from infected computers, most infected computers are home ones, so it's possible that it could be coming from one of them.

    Then again it's very easy to spoof email addresses so if they are only basing the spam on a particular email address then it could be coming from anyone who has ever received an email containing that address.

    TBH I'd be nervous about letting a home user laptop on any network I had to manage. If I had to I'd probably setup a FON so the visitor and local traffic was kept separate from each other.


  • #9
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,581 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    roberthurley14 wrote: »
    yes im afraid under the DPA (Data Protection Act) if hes the owner of the network he has full right to monior user activity with programs such as WebMarshal etc...as for the Hacking thing, hes probably just good with a PC, Hacking is illegal for the most part and as of such is just now a Buzzword people use to say theyre good at IT even though they cant hack...
    Most hacking is not illegal, because most hacking has nothing to do with cracking passwords

    Until recently amateur radio operators in this country could ONLY get a license on the basis that they were conducting experiments in radio. The government insisted on hacking as a condition of the license.


    Yes there are a few black hat hackers out there, and too many script kiddies :(


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