The solution here is simple: Disconnect from the VPN whenever you’re not using it, and stick to work tasks while you are connected. And more important, if anyone ever does try looking into what it is, what it has been doing on the network, or where it came from, it won’t point so obviously to you.Įven if you’re out of the office, or if you work remotely, your Web activity can still be tracked whenever you connect to the company’s virtual private network. ![]() Then nobody will know what it is, and it’ll just blend in with the long list of devices on the network. This name is usually visible not only to your company’s IT department but also to everyone else on the network–your coworkers, your boss, the woman in accounting, everyone.Ĭhange the name of your PC to something innocuous and nondescript heck, change it to a random string like 9873r54C. ![]() If you accept the default account settings when you set up your PC, your computer will likely announce you by name whenever you connect to the network, presenting itself as, say, “Dan Thompson’s PC” or similar. Should the expense of your own mobile data service seem unreasonable for the privilege of escaping your boss’s watchful eye, at least take one simple precaution when using your own machine on the company Wi-Fi network: Give your computer an anonymous name. An hour of data tethering will easily blow through your phone’s battery. If you decide to go the smartphone-tethering route, be sure to keep your phone charging on your desk the whole time. (Note: Playing Angry Birds on your tablet in front of coworkers all day will likely undermine that impression.) In fact, they might even create the impression that you’re ultraproductive, showing the whole office that you take your work seriously enough to bring your own hardware. If bringing a whole separate PC to work seems over the top to you, take the simpler route: Internet-connected tablets like the iPad or the Motorola Xoom are ideal for stealthy surfing, and they’re unlikely to raise the boss’s eyebrows. Once the boss is out of your hair, install a few sneaky utilities to help you goof off on your PC without getting caught. (Just try to steer the conversation away from any suggestion that you hand the machine over to the IT department for any reason.) The mere suggestion of a potential OSHA case may be enough to send your boss ambling down the hall in search of someone else to dump their passive-aggression on. If your boss asks why you’re not using the one Big Brother issued you, say that the keyboard makes your wrists hurt. The best way to get around PC monitoring software is to sidestep it entirely by using a PC that only you control. Even if you were to succeed, the server-side administration tools would throw a red flag once your system stopped reporting in. Unless your IT department is using some rinky-dink freeware to monitor you and chronically neglects to check it, disabling the monitoring features on your endpoint-security installation isn’t really an option. To make matters worse for a privacy-minded employee, a typical endpoint-security suite is tightly integrated not only into the PC’s operating system (with permissions restricted to keep you from meddling with it) but also into the data center, where a server (or possibly a remote host) checks on the PC frequently to make sure everything is okay. These suites handle everything from antivirus protection and system update management to corporate policy enforcement, and that last task generally includes keeping logs on which apps you launch, which Websites you visit, and so on. Your IT department needs to know what’s up with your PC (and you) to make sure the computer doesn’t fall prey to malware, putting company data at risk and potentially harming the business.Īny company with a reasonable IT budget will almost certainly have installed a comprehensive security package from a company such as McAfee, Symantec, or Trend Micro. ![]() The term refers to everything that goes on between you and your machine, from how you use your computer to the way the software on it works to the physical location of the system. In corporate-security speak, the software that monitors what’s happening on your PC falls under the general heading of endpoint security.
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