Stealthy surfing at work?

e_z_street · 10-19-2004, 10:41 PM

We had a meeting at work today and our boss told us that we were using the internet too much for non work related stuff. He said "you know you are being monitored right?" Uh oh, I'm glad I didn't post in the thread about goofing off at work on mp3car

Anyway, anybody use any creative ways to get around monitoring, firewalls, etc.? Anybody just not care?

Here's one: cut out the pages to a thick technical book, install a fanless epia board with a bluetooth dongle, use your bluetooth enabled phone to access the internet through GPRS/bluetooth, set up your "book pc" with a kvm switch that hooks up to your desktop with a foot pedal. When you hear your boss coming, toggle back to your spreadsheet program, and then back to mp3car when he walks away

alternately, you could use a lunch pail or cooler (our bags get searched when we go into work)

hevnsnt · 10-19-2004, 10:53 PM

proxy proxy proxy

noodles · 10-19-2004, 11:22 PM

What exactly are you supposed to be doing?

mushin · 10-20-2004, 12:59 AM

Carrier pigeons. They've got excellent bandwidth and don't have to be smuggled in; they'll come to you. Of course, you need an office with a window, and latency might be less than optimal...

gambit32 · 10-20-2004, 01:19 AM

GHOSTZILLA is the answer. It's an offshoot of mozilla and it embeds itself in most any window you have open. If you have an MS Word doc open it will embed itself in it so it just looks like a Word doc. If you can get it on cd it leaves no cookies, cache, etc....and it's free.

Here's a link:

http://www.ghostzilla.com/screenshots/index.html

mushin · 10-20-2004, 01:37 AM

Even Ghostzilla has to go fetch pages. Even with a proxy, you still can't hide the IP traffic, so long as they (the company) controlls the network you're on. Short of hacking the gateway and spoofing traffic logs, that doesn't leave many options beyond GPRS, though depending on your location, maybe you can pick up someone's 802.11?

"Hey Joe, what's that pringles can with wires coming from it?" "Uh, my daughter made it for her kindergarten art class, boss" "Oh ok, carry on then"

gambit32 · 10-20-2004, 02:01 AM

True it won't hide network traffic but visually...it's the best.

e_z_street · 10-20-2004, 08:55 PM

Darn! I like the carrier pigeon idea, but I don't sit next to a window. I guess GPRS will have to do for now. It will be great when G3 technology becomes widespread and affordable. Maybe one could create a dummy account (John Doe) and set up a wireless router in the ceiling or floor where the data lines run. They might have people that war walk through the building looking for rogue wireless networks though.

hijinks21 · 10-20-2004, 09:27 PM

i'm a sys admin. I've done work at a past job to monitor how employees spend their time online. I hated it cause i like giving people freedom.. but it's how i get paid.

Proxy's will not help.. we can still see all packets going out. same with anything embeded.. just cause it doesn't leave a trace on your computer doesn't mean the machine all the web traffic goes through won't pick it up.

The only sure fire way is to setup ssh tunnels.. most people won't have a clue on what they are.. but its like a secure proxy.. everything is encrypted till the end of the tunnel which is already past the company you work for.. so they just see encrypted ssh traffic from yout IP. I was thinking about setting up a company to setup ssh tunnels and make it easy for people to install with mozilla or IE but i just have never had the time

e_z_street · 10-20-2004, 10:44 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by hijinks21

The only sure fire way is to setup ssh tunnels..

I have a buddy who's done that at another company, but I have always been skeptical about trying it. I don't fully understand how it works, but I'm afraid that either they would eventually figure it out or I would eventually accidentally screw something up. Not worth it just to read mp3car for 20 minutes while waiting for some data or a program to run. Some people over abuse the system and ruin it for everybody else. Wish my managers weren't such jerks about it. One of me co-workers just had a talk with HR for forwarding a joke that was sent to her. She almost got fired for some stupid joke. Wish they would lighten up a bit.

/end rant

heywire · 10-20-2004, 11:18 PM

Hell, my boss sends me jokes

Then again, the software company I work for bought the workers beer for fathers day 2 years ago

hijinks21 · 10-20-2004, 11:38 PM

there are ways admins can find out even ssh tunnels. all they look for is the desintation of the traffic.. and if they are wise to this "company" offering ssh tunnels.. then its obvious. I know a lot of friends that do all their personal interneting at work through ssh tunnels and it works just fine.

jjh221 · 10-20-2004, 11:46 PM

Well they know your sn on here.
Getting fired for a joke, well, is no joke thats just messed up.
Just tell everyone to sshhhhhhh

Bigassbike · 10-21-2004, 02:08 AM

I VPN to my home connection, and use remote desktop. I'm the Sys Admin, so I am the monitor, but this hides it from the ISP.

LowMileLude · 10-21-2004, 08:02 AM

The new guy has a great idea. I use remote access all the time. Hmm...

My job, doesn't care as long as it's before work or at lunch. My old one... you had to be sneaky. And then, I didn't get caught only because the tech guys weren't looking for it or didn't care enough to track me down.

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