Having worked at huge multi-national IT company almost a decade ago, I know how some office workplaces can be very restrictive or security-conscious but every time I hear more stories about office restrictions, I still can’t believe they enforce those.
Back in my days as a developer, we used to have proximity cards and the regular software audits as well as a firewall that blocks certain types of ports and messaging softwares like YM or ICQ.
When we’re due to have software audits in our work PC, we just copy out WarCraft 3 and copy it back again after the audit. That way, the Windows Registry would not show WC3 being installed and it will still work after copying the game back without re-installation.
Today, there are much stricter office regulations:
- No cellphones or laptops allowed inside the office. They will need to be stowed away in your personal lockers before going to your desk.
- Flash drive, SD card or any other type of USB storage are prohibited in the workplace. THe USB ports of the workstation are disabled.
- Filtering internet softwares such as WebSense tracks all sites that you visit and blocks out certain sites based on the IT Managers protocols — blogs, chats, videos, forums, social networking sites, etc. I used to get emails from reader telling me that my blog has been blocked from their office network just because it had the term “blog” in the URL.
- Some offices have specific PCs allocated for internet access since all other PC are not connected to the net, just the private network.
- Security cards that require you to use the same door that you entered in as you exit as well (they call it something like single entry-exit protocol).
- Some companies would not allow they employees to say where they work.
If you work in one of those offices where workplace security is tough, do share some of your experiences.
Sa office namin walang restrictions, lalo na sa Internet. We have 2 Internet connections, yung mabagal, yun yung may restriction, yung mabilis, yun yung wala. Surf all you want, depende na sa iyo kung gusto mong mag-surf sa porn sites, pero syempre nakakahiya yun. We’ll matitino naman kami lahat sa office. As long as you do your assigned job, no problem.