Fired for Surfing at Work

[rockinjim1523]

Open question: What are the actual risks of getting shit-canned for viewing inappropriate material at work?

Hypothetical: I have worked for a company for seven years. In that time, on company computers, I have used P2P and bit torrent. I have surfed the web from one end to the other. I have, from time to time, *accidentally* stumbled onto inappropriate images. I use the hell out of PurgeIE to clean up my PC, but I assume the real tracking is done at the server level.

1. Does my PurgeIE use reduce my risk or is the real danger at the server level?
2. I avoid any URL or filename that would send up red-flags with whomever may be monitoring activity. Does that reduce my risk or am I kidding myself?
3. How real is the risk? I've seen a LOT in seven years and never heard a word from anyone about it.
4. Short of further reducing my surfing-at-work habits, are there more ways to protect myself?

I work for a large company with obvious capability and IT staff to be able to monitor everyone. I am considered a "top performer" who can be relied upon for important projects - so maybe I'm not watched as closely as some.

Have I been lucky all these years? Is my "usefulness" to the company such that my *mistakes* are overlooked? Or is my care in avoiding "red-flag" keywords when surfing saving my ass? Or could it be a combination of all of the above?

Obviously, I'm not looking for a specific answer - none exists. I'm just trying to get your opinions/thoughts on this phenomenon.

Jim

[computer2slow]

1. No help. They would look at server logs. Also if you no history would raise suspicious.
2. Might help a little and I mean little
3. Using P2P and torrents huge risk of being fired on the stop. Just surfing non porn and legal sites lower. If a good employee otherwise I'd think a warning.
4. Since your using their network not much you can hide if they are looking.


There masy be someone that knows more.

[rockinjim1523]

*deletes Flickr account* Too easy to end up in murky waters there...

[Spidy]

do you have a written Policy?... Personally I do not work for a company that has a Network and they know nothing about monitoring..But if you are connected to a network server it is more than likely logging all addresses that are being clicked onto....

Personal opinion...not worth losing a job over a cheep thrill of looking at a naked woman..save it for home...

I think Monkey might be able to answer better since he know alot about spying on coworkers...

[tjw61]

Yeah, I'm with Spidy and c2s.....if they have a written policy you cold be screwed....where I work we have a form that all users have to sign to agree to to use our network.....if they mess up and we catch them, they can be gone... hasn't happened yet, I work in a school system and most of our attention is on making sure the kids play nice...thay have a form they have to sign, along w/parents before they can use the network too......that being said, ultimately, if you think its wrong, it probably is and you should be careful or not do it at all....all it takes is a new boss or supervisor who decides he wants to make a name for him\herself and you could be gone for doing it....what I tell my users is, we can see everything and if you don't want us to see it, don't do it here.......

[Head_Monkey]

I have worked in a Govt department that sacked, reprimanded, and docked pay from people who viewed (and stored) inappropriate images on their work computers. I have also worked in places where you can surf literally whatever you want without monitoring, or consequence.

It all comes down to the policy, and how strict they enforce it. Given the company / CEO is liable to be sued by people who are exposed to inappropriate images (directly or indirectly), or by companies whose copyrighted material is on your network, it's better to be safe than sorry. (e.g. banning all images and videos being emailed) or viewed).

And as for tracking, the "good" setups do it all on the server side of things. There are programs that will monitor and log every aspect of your surfing experience, right down to how long you spend on a particular webpage! I'm curently in the process of setting up such a box at my current job.

Long story short, it's safer to do "work related" surfing at work, and everything else at home.

[Xray]

I'm a teacher, so I wouldn't dare go to these sites at work.

[Spidy]

I'm a teacher, so I wouldn't dare go to these sites at work.

you must not work alot then...

[Xray]

you must not work alot then...

Not this week, it's February break/President's week.

[rockinjim1523]

Thanks for the perspective, all. Our company, in each of its iterations, has had us sign forms saying we will use company internet and email only for company business - leaving themselves room to fire anyone anytime for nearly anything. They haven't ever DONE it (that I've known about) but they can if they want to.

Enough time without consequence tends to make one bolder than one should be. You figure - the years make me safer, when in actuality they just build the pile of server logs that will spill out when someone finally decides to look.

Myself, I think I'll take your good advice and tone it down. A lot.

Thanks again!
Jim

[Thongjoy]

You guys have a cushy job! I wasn't even allowed to e-mail or surf ANYTHING not related to work on company time!
Even a nn site would have been grounds for immediate dismissal.

[harvestthesouls]

If you find yourself caught red handed viewing explicit material on the web, lol or summit along those lines you could always argue that it keeps popping up, so when you're viewing a naughty photo lol, press f11 and get rid of as many toolbars as possible, make it look like a popup window in anticipation of someone catching you. Then later on, go back to that same link, again periodically, then you can show the boss the browsing history, to make it seem honest and realistic lol

[dembar]

Better do it at home... when they pull up a report they do it from the server and they wont come to you asking for explanations on how that got into your computer, they might just give you the letter saying "you're fired!"

A good option that I use is logmein to keep the computer at home busy downloading stuff, but some places have that blocked.

[Xray]

They block access to these kind of sites at school. Facebook, Myspace, forums, all blocked.