When you surf the net at work, is it possible for the network administrators to track which sites you've visited and when you are surfing?

No, I haven't been surfing for porn, but I don't need the network administrator or my boss coming to me 5 months from now with a documented list of all the "nonwork related" sites I've been surfing and all the hours I spent doing it.

 

Yes.
Yes.

The network administrator can find out just about anything about your use of the network, including email text, where you surfed/ftp'ed/telnet'ed, how long you were connected, etc. Scary, huh?

 

Yes, it is possible depending on what the administrator is doing. There are tons of different kinds of monitoring software. So if you're not sure what they're doing, I'd advise you to be careful. I turn in weekly reports to the VP of my company that charts internet usage, excluding mine of course. That's one of the perks of being the guy in charge of all that I guess.

 

At my firm every URL is logged for everyone of tens of thousands of users. With an authorized request a history of your web habits is produced and if it is found that company policy has been breached you may be terminated. A series of terminations has just about eliminated visits to porn sites via the company network.

 

I kind of guessed that too. But I am sure that if they were going to bust me for surfing (and I don't even visit porn sites at work, I'm not that stupid), 99% of the company would get busted. However, the "how long you were connected" thing...how do they find this out? I am on a LAN and I don't "dial-up" to get to the internet, I just open up MS Internet Explorer and there it is. So technically, I'm connected all the time, right?

But what about e-mail? Here's my scenario:

We use MS Outlook at work (2000 in one office, 98 in another). I know that the .pst files reside some where on the network. However, I create another .pst file either on my local harddrive or on a CD-RW, to act as a personal folder, where I move all my personal e-mails. At that point, are my personal e-mails no longer on the server? Or does a "copy" of my personal emails still reside somewhere on the server, even though I have moved it into a personal folder somwhere on my local harddrive or CD-RW?

 

I would never assume that the company you work for cant or doesnt have total access to any and all info inside the network regardless of your deleteing something. Unless you can hack the server itself at the administration level.

Be careful. Layoffs and cutbacks seem to be plentious now. I wouldnt give an employer an excuse to terminate with predjudice right now.

 

I can't imagine a company not logging all visits. Most likely, you have a proxy server / firewall beteen you and the Internet. Every request through that server is probably logged. It's a tenent of security - log everything in case you need to track an intruder (or fire an employee).

If your .pst was on a server, that server is probably getting backed up nightly. Every single version of your .pst is probably sitting on a tape somewhere.

 

tip: most network admins take bribes, cash and/or other substances (caffiene, nicotene, other)

 

I believe there's a law (at least in CA) which states that a company must inform their employees if their internet activitites are being monitored. Even though the server may automatically be logging employees' internet use, unless you've been informed that they are actively monitoring you, then the company has no legal right to fire you - irrespective of how much surfing you do, or where you go.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 1Y2KS2K
[B]I believe there's a law (at least in CA) which states that a company must inform their employees if their internet activitites are being monitored.