[BC] IT troubles

[R A Meuser]

RichardBJohnson at comcast.net wrote:
> From: R A Meuser <rameuser at ieee.org>
>  > It is really simple, the company owns the equipment and put it in your
>  > hands to accomplish a work function. They make the rules. Where I work
>  > all our mail and packages is opened as well as a security measure.
>  >
> 
> It is not that simple. The same communications
> law that anybody who even got a 3rd Class ticket
> had to learn about, referencing that a third party
> can't divulge communications between two other
> parties, had its basis in Constitutional
> Law --the Communications Act of 1934 --gawd,
> I wish people in communications were still
> required to be licensed so they would have
> obtained some modicum on knowledge about
> this.
> 
> The fact that even courts are not privy to one's
> private communications also has its basis in
> Constitutional Law. The only reason why your
> company can pry into the personal business of
> its employees is because nobody (yet) has
> spent the million-or-so dollars it takes to bring
> this to the Supreme Court.

That is like saying that if you have a company car you can take it drag 
racing Saturday night because it is your 'right'. Any company has the 
right to set rules of conduct and use of equipment within reason. It is 
their house and their rules. I often had loggers on a radio station's 
hot and warm lines. Staff was told it was to assure proper use of those 
lines.



> 
>  > Anyone who is competent with a computer should know how to bypass
>  > security and firewalls for personal use purposes. If you can't or choose
>  > not to, then it is your problem. Any decent company very clearly lays
>  > out the rule they expect you to follow. You are always free to go 
> elsewhere.
>  >
> 
> When a company prevents outside access to
> real IP addresses, the only bypass available is
> a dial-up (guess what I'm using). Of course I can
> always "steal" intellectual property with a thumb drive.


I will admit to the point that I might be missing something, but other 
than the use of a proxy server for outbound traffic, I do not see how IP 
traffic can be blocked. We have both public and non-Internet routable 
IPs and our security is pretty high but I can still reach my home 
machine and do it by name. It is fairly basic IT stuff.

Your company could also have their own internal DNS server (we do) which 
would restrict where you can go on the Internet but usually just 
restricts 'bad' places.