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Using Brave's “Private Window with Tor” could get you fired

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Re: Using Brave's “Private Window with Tor” could get you fired

#31

Post by derekp7 »

donatj wrote: post #20

My company blocks so much inane crap it’s ridiculous. Any site not explicitly reviewed by the firewall company? Blocked. Want to Google restaurants for lunch? Half the restaurants websites are blocked under the firewall rule against “alcohol and bars”. So much more. Trying to talk to IT about it is painful. I had to go through three levels of support over a week just to get a single site unblocked. Before Work-from-H…

Do they allow your cell phone to be out when you are working? I'd just plug my cell phone in a USB port ("I'm charging my phone" if anyone asks), and use IP over USB to talk to the phone, and run non-business internet through the phone's data connection. On step further if the PC is locked down to prevent this, plug the keyboard/mouse/monitor into a Raspberry Pi, with a soft KVM plugged into one of the Pi's USB ports so your primary connection is to a device you control. Then use the KVM software to view your PC in full screen mode. Of course, this won't work if you are in an open office and your Pi's environment looks suspiciously different from your normal Windows desktop (but that can be fixed with theming).

Of course if I worked at a place that was constantly looking for an excuse to fire you, I wouldn't work there for long (because I'd either find a more relaxing job, or get fired).

Re: Using Brave's “Private Window with Tor” could get you fired

#33

Post by PopeUrbanX »

zo1 wrote: post #12
charcircuit wrote: post #11

What's next? Using https could get you fired because they can't MITM you?

Most of them use group-policies and other software to install root-certs onto company devices. HTTPS won't help you with MITM in that case.

Don't browsers these days loudly warn you if something like that is happening?

Re: Using Brave's “Private Window with Tor” could get you fired

#34

Post by donatj »

wolverine876 wrote: post #29
donatj wrote: post #20

My company blocks so much inane crap it’s ridiculous. Any site not explicitly reviewed by the firewall company? Blocked. Want to Google restaurants for lunch? Half the restaurants websites are blocked under the firewall rule against “alcohol and bars”. So much more. Trying to talk to IT about it is painful. I had to go through three levels of support over a week just to get a single site unblocked. Before Work-from-H…

From another perspective (perhaps not popular here): How does allowing access to restaurant websites help the bottom line? What is the risk? One malware outbreak can be enormously damaging. How much time should IT employees spend unblocking restaurant websites instead of, for example, developing new applications that increase productivity? Arguably, an IT employee who is spending time unblocking restaurant websites m…

Not restaurant specifically, but I suspect the loss of innovation from the general chilling effect is pretty high. When I have trouble researching something, that’s money lost for them in time I am wasting, and potentially worse from the side effects.

Every time an engineer doesn’t look into something at all, because they know odds are good they’re not going to be able to, that’s potentially millions lost.

Re: Using Brave's “Private Window with Tor” could get you fired

#35

Post by whatshisface »

wolverine876 wrote: post #29
donatj wrote: post #20

My company blocks so much inane crap it’s ridiculous. Any site not explicitly reviewed by the firewall company? Blocked. Want to Google restaurants for lunch? Half the restaurants websites are blocked under the firewall rule against “alcohol and bars”. So much more. Trying to talk to IT about it is painful. I had to go through three levels of support over a week just to get a single site unblocked. Before Work-from-H…

From another perspective (perhaps not popular here): How does allowing access to restaurant websites help the bottom line? What is the risk? One malware outbreak can be enormously damaging. How much time should IT employees spend unblocking restaurant websites instead of, for example, developing new applications that increase productivity? Arguably, an IT employee who is spending time unblocking restaurant websites m…

>How does allowing access to restaurant websites help the bottom line?

Humans need to eat to survive, and one consequence of survival is that tickets are closed.

Re: Using Brave's “Private Window with Tor” could get you fired

#36

Post by watermelon0 »

PopeUrbanX wrote: post #33
zo1 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of them use group-policies and other software to install root-certs onto company devices. HTTPS won't help you with MITM in that case.

Don't browsers these days loudly warn you if something like that is happening?

Most browsers (with the exception of Firefox which has its own store) trust root certificates installed on the OS (at least for Windows/Linux/macOS.)

With mobile devices (iOS/Android), web browsers also trust custom root certificates, but apps have the ability to reject them.

Re: Using Brave's “Private Window with Tor” could get you fired

#37

Post by oyashirochama »

jpollock wrote: post #19

There are industries where compliance requires all work-related communications be logged and monitored. This logging is typically done through proxy servers on the network, and avoiding them is a _bad_thing_. They will also track web traffic through a proxy and MITM any https traffic by forcing the use of specific keys. They're trying to look for insider trading. Avoiding the proxy is the problem. Staff using their o…

Imagine not having a key logger and mouse tracer on your computer at work. Our machines also lock your account, computer and ID if you plug mass storage devices.

Re: Using Brave's “Private Window with Tor” could get you fired

#38

Post by kortex »

wolverine876 wrote: post #29
donatj wrote: post #20

My company blocks so much inane crap it’s ridiculous. Any site not explicitly reviewed by the firewall company? Blocked. Want to Google restaurants for lunch? Half the restaurants websites are blocked under the firewall rule against “alcohol and bars”. So much more. Trying to talk to IT about it is painful. I had to go through three levels of support over a week just to get a single site unblocked. Before Work-from-H…

From another perspective (perhaps not popular here): How does allowing access to restaurant websites help the bottom line? What is the risk? One malware outbreak can be enormously damaging. How much time should IT employees spend unblocking restaurant websites instead of, for example, developing new applications that increase productivity? Arguably, an IT employee who is spending time unblocking restaurant websites m…

It's not blocking restaurants per se. It's doing some heuristic based match and seeing entries on the site with words like "wine" "whiskey" "cocktail" and determines the website is "alcohol and tobacco" and bans or limits it.

Ran into this at $lastco, as a chemist. Used to look up alcohol water azeotrope charts and half would be on homebrew sites and got blocked.

I just used my phone to email the charts to myself.

Re: Using Brave's “Private Window with Tor” could get you fired

#39

Post by oyashirochama »

derekp7 wrote: post #31
donatj wrote: post #20

My company blocks so much inane crap it’s ridiculous. Any site not explicitly reviewed by the firewall company? Blocked. Want to Google restaurants for lunch? Half the restaurants websites are blocked under the firewall rule against “alcohol and bars”. So much more. Trying to talk to IT about it is painful. I had to go through three levels of support over a week just to get a single site unblocked. Before Work-from-H…

Do they allow your cell phone to be out when you are working? I'd just plug my cell phone in a USB port ("I'm charging my phone" if anyone asks), and use IP over USB to talk to the phone, and run non-business internet through the phone's data connection. On step further if the PC is locked down to prevent this, plug the keyboard/mouse/monitor into a Raspberry Pi, with a soft KVM plugged into one of the Pi's USB ports…

At my job plugging in a USB device gets you paperwork and loss of computer use for at least 3-6 months. Fun fact my job also can't fire you, but it can make you wish you could.

Re: Using Brave's “Private Window with Tor” could get you fired

#40

Post by ivraatiems »

jpollock wrote: post #19

There are industries where compliance requires all work-related communications be logged and monitored. This logging is typically done through proxy servers on the network, and avoiding them is a _bad_thing_. They will also track web traffic through a proxy and MITM any https traffic by forcing the use of specific keys. They're trying to look for insider trading. Avoiding the proxy is the problem. Staff using their o…

It's absolutely reasonable to have security requirements. It's not reasonable to fire someone for a single, accidental violation. I hope the people in the above story realize that they've made a mistake.
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