How in the HELL do bosses FIND blogs???

[Thtwudbeme]

I was just reading the story of people getting fired for internet blogs; the most interesting part of the story is the people who don't write at work.

I will be damned if I can find my soon to be brother in law's blog--and I know what names and words to "Google."

I could understand spyware on the job---but, I just don't understand how they find the other ones?

Anyone?

[dsc]

1. My guess

Good old fashioned snitches. Bitter break up, tell boss about blog.

[blondeatlast]

2. My thoughts too. I sure as hell can't find them. nt

[Thtwudbeme]

5. That was my only guess too....there is never a shortage

of brown-nosers in the world.

We have one at work, but she is so ridiculous that I just laugh and stay out of her way.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. I'm not sure what you're asking?

If someone publishes his real name on his blog, it's accessible with an easy search on google.

[Az]

4. Vanity googling

If your blog mentions your boss or work and they google it they will find themself drawn right to you.

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. That was my first thought.

It was how I found out that I was a threat to America on somebody's blog. Go figure that one. :shrug:

:hi:

[Renew Deal]

6. Websense

We use it at work. You can search activity by employee, category (sex, guns, travel, message boards, IM, politics, etc.). There are other products. It works well. Almost flawlessly.

[Thtwudbeme]

7. OK, I am stupid about stuff like this: does it work

on what the employee is doing at home?

Personally, I wouldn't give a rat's ass if my employees read what I write on DU (I don't blog---can't stand blogs)--and they are Republicans in the worst way--they can kiss my liberal ass---but, how would they find this?

There are millions of "Stephanies" out there---and I have never posted the name of the town I live in?

[Az]

8. No, it can only track activity at work

As I said, if you are not accessing the blog from work and they still find out about it, its very likely its because they were vanity googling and found your rant about them.

[Thtwudbeme]

10. so it's spyware?

Interesting.

[Az]

12. I used to do network security

There are all sorts of ways to determine what an employee is doing. From simply monitoring net activity (they know what sites you are going to) to capturing keystrokes even down to direct monitoring of your actual screen so they can see everything you are doing.

The question is how much time and effort as well as how invasive do they actually want to be. Trust me, you are not going to be able to hide from network security type if they set us on your trail. Your best bet is to stay away from the porn (the biggest no no) and for everything else you hit either be sure you can stand up for yourself or just don't do it.

And yes we can read your email.

[coloradodem2005]

18. You mean at work? Right?

Not at home.

[Az]

20. Right

Though there does seem to be some effort on the part of Corporations to explore what access they can have to regulating employees lives even when not on the job. There is the recent cases of companies firing people for smoking at home or away from the job. Corporations want control. They don't want limits. They will push for ways to control you anywhere in time.

[Renew Deal]

15. Websense isn't spyware.

It's an internet monitoring tools. It sits almost at the gateway and logs all internet requests. It is not spyware.

[Az]

16. You have to understand

You are in their network. They can track any packet moving about in their network. They don't need spyware to know whats going on. Spyware is used when you want to find out about someone and don't control their environment. Compared to the level of access an admin has spyware can only provide a trickle of information. An admin on their own network owns you.

[alarimer]

17. Whatever happened to free speech?

If they are not writing it at work why the hell is it grounds for being fired? This really sucks.

So if I said here "My boss, insert name here, is a really asshole. And he probably cheats on his taxes" I could be fired?

[Az]

19. Not how I believe it should be but here are the facts

At work you are using the companies equipment. While you may have freespeech you do not have automatic claims to a job or access to their equipment. They can do anything they want with their equipment. If they believe you are selling secrets or in some way endangering the company they can turn a network security geek (such as myself) loose on your system and we can pull everything out of the harddrive they need to figure out what you have been up to.

[alarimer]

21. Well I was talking about at home

Things that you might post somewhere (I hate my boss, my job sucks, etc.) on your own time. It seems like people have gotten fired (I can't remember specifics) for things they did on their own time, just because their boss happened not to like it.

[barackmyworld]

9. there are many search terms

the person's full name, first name and city, first name and company name, etc. Sometimes you can find someone's screen name (that they use for email and maybe other things) and find stuff listed under that, or listed under their email.

[FormerDittoHead]

11. Do you use a proxy server?

If you do, there's a log of every website you go.

There ARE ways to anonymously surf the web via ANOTHER proxy server, but I would honestly suggest you not use your business's resources for personal use, not even email for anything significant.

[Thtwudbeme]

13. Oh, I could care less;

I am a part time receptionist; I have already told my employers that I prefer not to talk about politics with them because they are intentionally uninformed and obtuse...(they listen to Rush and that stupid O'Reilly jackass) --so I am not very concerned with what they think of my internet use.

If they backtrack me from yesterday, they can view the Spring Training Grapefruit league lineup in 4 different towns.

Hope they enjoy it!

[Az]

14. If your in their network

Shifting to another proxy will only buy you some time. We can track that and eventually slap a log on it as well. If thats not enough we just grab a sniffer and find out what you are up to. If thats not enough simply jump on their harddrive from the net and sift through the cache to find out where you have been. You are not going to hide from security. If they want to know they will know. Your best bet is to simply not show up on their radar.