Just found out today that I'm the reason work installed Internet Blocking Software!

Rockrivr1

Rockrivr1

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So who here has heard of Websense? For those that haven't it's an internet tracking and blocking software. It allows a company to track what internet sights all of their employees are visiting and how long they spend on the internet daily. It's also set up to block users from visiting web sites and it's constantly pinging the internet to find new sites that fall into a restricted area so they can be blocked as well.

Last summer my company secretly installed Websense in North America. So secretly that nobody in IT knew about it other then to supply a server and internet connection that a "vendor" was going to use for a test product. They ran reports on everyone for 3 months and took the results back to Australia.

So this morning I was in my CIO's direct reports meeting that happens once every quarter. Towards the end of this morning's meeting he started explaining the results from the 3 months review. According to the results the number one visited site was Gambling. The Senior Managers said "Eh, no big deal. Everyone need to blow off steam sometimes". The number two visited sites were Porn. Once again Senior Managers said "Eh, no big deal. Everyone looks at porn".

This is where it gets interesting. No BS here. My CIO said that the main reason that Websense was installed was.... At which point he stops talking and he looks directly at me and continues with "all the gun sites that were visited". [shocked] Now picture this. My CIO has 10 people, including myself, that report directly to him. Every single one of them look directly at me right after he says this. "Gulp" He then continues by saying that there were so many hits to gun sites that it scared the bajesses out of them. For that reason alone they decided that they need to install Websense. [thinking] Why am I not surprised coming from a couple of spoiled rich gun grabbing Australians. [angry]

Well, there is a silver lining though. I inadvertently found out that I'm one of very many people that looked at gun sites while at work in my company. [laugh] I need to find out who some of these people are!

An that my friends is why my company decided to install Websense.
 
pj150 said:
You need to surf for porn and play more party poker since obviously it's ok to so.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that would work. Only problem is they are watching that now. Then again, you can get teckie on them. VPN to your home computer and surf the net from that connection. [wink] Not that I would ever think of doing that to bypass the companies security. [rolleyes]
 
Is there a way to find out if that product or similar are installed? Is there a well known IP address to ping or hit with a browser?
 
Chuck said:
Is there a way to find out if that product or similar are installed? Is there a well known IP address to ping or hit with a browser?
Click to expand...

Not really. You will see a thing that says "XYZ has been blocked by Websense" etc.

-Mike
 
Websense has a blocking category for anonymizing services.

You can sign up for a free websense account, and use this to see what category(s) a site is listed in. IN the old days it was automatic (and excluded free non-business accounts like hotmail and gmail from eligibility). Currently, they require corporate contact info.

I received complaints that one of the sites I manage (www.uspsa.org) was blocked at a lot of corporate locations, so I contacted Websense and pointed out that they had it mis-categorized as a "weapons" site and suggested a more appropriate category (I think there was one for "sporting clubs"), and they actually changed it so this site would not be as commonly blocked.
 
I would tell them to go f*ck themselves if they think you are going to apologize for exercising your second amendment rights.
 
maee said:
I would tell them to go f*ck themselves if they think you are going to apologize for exercising your second amendment rights.
Click to expand...
Um, this isn't about exercising his 2nd amendment rights. It is about he and his co-workers using company resources to surf to web sites that the company doesn't like.
 
M1911 said:
Um, this isn't about exercising his 2nd amendment rights. It is about he and his co-workers using company resources to surf to web sites that the company doesn't like.
Click to expand...

My point is that I would stick up for myself if being unfairly criticized for looking at gun websites when other people are gambling or looking at porn. The company is making an arbitrary values judgment for porn and gambling and against guns, even though the right to keep and bear arms now stands side by side with the first amendment. In other words, I see it as abuse since the company is imposing their political beliefs on you.

All I am really saying is that I would not let them walk all over you like that. I would pull some of them aside and explain that they should not thumb their noses at you when it comes to their personal values. It doesn't belong in the workplace. And that he better be glad there are people like me that are willing to devote our lives to developing more deadly weapons for the use of the US Government. If everybody was a commie, pinko, pacifist the US and the company would be SOL.

I had the same incident occur when I worked at a major, local defense contractor who's main product is guidance systems of ICBMs and missile technology. The chief of security yelled at me for looking at gun websites when my work did not specifically involve the direct development of weapons. My boss stuck up for me and I told security where to shove their anti-weapons bull shit. I told him he has no right to tell me what I can and can't look at when this company is a freaking weapons of mass destruction company. And that many skilled engineers are anti-weapons/DoD, so they should be glad that there are people like me who are patriotic and support weapons development for the US government.

But, that said, unless you work at a defense contractor, YMMV. [smile]
 
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My company has tried blocking us using a local proxie server, easy enough to get around I removed the proxie info from firefox. They then had us uninstall firefox so I know use firefox portable on my usb drive.
 
Dude sorry to hear that. I don't know what I would do if they blocked me from the internet/favorite sites at work.

On the plus note as you stated your not the only one... so hopefully there is a range near by and you and the co-workers can start taking range lunch breaks
 
maee said:
My point is that I would stick up for myself if being unfairly criticized for looking at gun websites when other people are gambling or looking at porn. The company is making an arbitrary values judgment for porn and gambling and against guns, even though the right to keep and bear arms now stands side by side with the first amendment. In other words, I see it as abuse since the company is imposing their political beliefs on you.
Click to expand...
You're going to try to defend surfing (whether to gun sites or NYtimes.com) using company equipment during work hours? Real easy way for HR to can your behind.
 
I showed this link to the two people I work with. We are a small company with a small IT office. Currently there aren't many sites we block and everyone seems to adhere to our computer usage policy. As the company expands and grows I will see a heed to implement something. Until then no one is stupid enough here to risk losing their job over. At least I certainly am not.

My boss knows I go on gun websites but doesn't care as long as I get my work done and done on time. Even though he is not a gun guy himself. He has a brother or two in Texas that are big into guns and another wanted to open up a gun shop here in MA. So he understands it as well as other people in my company. Thankfully the important people see guns and shooting as sort of an art and fun sport rather than evil killing machines.

With this being said if they told me not to visit certain sites I wouldn't. I am part of the IT staff so they really can't stop me but it is company time. I am just thankful they let us browse when it is slow so i do not abuse it.
 
maee, I hear what you are saying. Here's my dilema though. The company I work for, which is HQ'd in Australia, has made a decision to block sites due to a catagory that I have an intense interest in. Now that it's installed I can either

A. Rock the boat and cause a hassle that I will not win. Plus damage my reputation and standing with with company while doing it.

or

B. Suck it up and enjoy the other benefits I get from working here. aka - I'm the boss of my division, I make decent money, I've been here for 16 years, I've installed all the equipment I manager, I get 6 weeks vacation, etc.

Most people that know me at work already know I'm a very right leaning gun nut, so it wasn't a big surprise for most of the people in the meeting. A few were surprised though and I could give a rats ass if it bothers them.

I just though it was particularly interesting/funny that I, and gun nuts like me, are being blamed for the reason Websense was installed. To good. [wink]
 
Rockrivr1 said:
I just though it was particularly interesting/funny that I, and gun nuts like me, are being blamed for the reason Websense was installed. To good. [wink]
Click to expand...

I was thinking about this at one point earlier. You obviously know your boss better than I, but could he have been ironic in his statement in order to express incredulity over their reasons for websense? Like "yeah, porn and gambling are fine but those gun nuts, we gotta stop them...[rolleyes]" and he focused on you because you were out of the closet sorta say or was he being dead serious that you were to blame and he agreed?
 
Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

Unless you have another job lined up or have enough coin in the bank to sustain a few years. STFU, bend over, grab ankles and smile.

We're all whores to our employers or customers.
 

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