Scansafe.

I've been trying to do some practice logs while at work.
Yeah, should be doing real work but what the hey.
Unfortunately our company uses the frustrating and bloomin' annoying external scanning firm that audits browsing habits called ScanSafe.
Anyone else have problems with this? Even with legit links it pops up!
Trying to view info on removing Malware and it keeps blocking me.

Completely stopped me from being able to surf for Pron (only joking).

Suppose I'll have to start putting in some hours at home.

I have been following another thread on another forum with similar issues about what their work machines will and will not allow you to do ; I think the issue is; you are AT work to DO work ; ALL of the sites I work at closely mointor the internet access and useage and we are warned that abuse of the system will mean our "priviledge " OF internet access will be terminated ; this has already happened to a colleague of mine who now cannot log in to the internet on ANY machine; and at another site two colleagues were severly restricted in their useage of it;when I access the internet at work I am very conscious that ALL my surfing habits ARE monitored; and I am extremely careful of any sites I visit; I think one must rememebr that one IS at work TO work;

however, I suspect that other folks may have completely different views and comments about this?

Wow P;3 you almost sounded angry then!
While I agree with you on the "AT WORK TO DO WORK" count you may have seen in my post that I said it slightly tongue in cheek.
Malware is an extremely serious issue to both home users and work based networks. It is no longer in the domain of script kiddies and standard virii writers.
Networks themselves are in Jeapardy due to the whole Malware phenomenon. I have personally spent several hours, as an untrained Malware cleaner, sorting out heavily infected laptop machines. These then run slowly and cause serious problems for our sales engineers who do buy things over the internet with company credit cards. Having myself as a trained Malware fighter is benificial to the company. Our IT department doesn't really seem interested, partly due to the fact that they really are not aware of how serious the rootkit malware issue really is.
I personally am IT based also but in a more specific context.
I got interested myself when I was hit with a nasty rootkit (possibly Hacker Defender) and had to reinstall the OS, losing several hours of productive time.
While most of the points I have raised you will no doubt be aware of, I do think it is of high importance that SMEs do have some internal ability to rapidly prevent and clean infection. Too many companies are naively leaving their network wide open to malware while relying on external checks (scansafe), Network firewall checks (Websense) and ineffectual and outdated client antivirus software (Mcafee Antivirus v5 and 4 on some machines).

Sorry for the extended waffle but I have strong opinions on this.

Regards,

RichieB.

Richieb001,

I think that you're right. Security and anti-malware should also be part of enterprise's culture. And it's a part of our responsibilities, as MRU trainees, to get our chiefs/boss/family/friends/neighbours/... involved in the learning curse.

But : You are paid to do a specific job. Unless your boss agrees that you spent one hour or two per day/per week to improve your skills in a domain that your entreprise will benefit from, I think you should be very very cautious of what you do.

To convince your chief to open access to these sites for your knowledge, perhaps it should be a good idea to take a picture of an infected computer (why not make a HD copy), and showing him that you are really more efficient to resolve these problems (take care of licences terms !)
If he's able to remove malwares, you can also make a challenge between you and him...
If he sees that you took one hour less than your collegue to resolve a problem, knowing that you have a certain knowledge acquired here, I think that he'd be able to count his advantages (chiefs can, usually).

"richieb001" wrote:Wow P;3 you almost sounded angry then!
While I agree with you on the "AT WORK TO DO WORK" count you may have seen in my post that I said it slightly tongue in cheek.
Malware is an extremely serious issue to both home users and work based networks. It is no longer in the domain of script kiddies and standard virii writers.
Networks themselves are in Jeapardy due to the whole Malware phenomenon. I have personally spent several hours, as an untrained Malware cleaner, sorting out heavily infected laptop machines. These then run slowly and cause serious problems for our sales engineers who do buy things over the internet with company credit cards. Having myself as a trained Malware fighter is benificial to the company. Our IT department doesn't really seem interested, partly due to the fact that they really are not aware of how serious the rootkit malware issue really is.
I personally am IT based also but in a more specific context.
I got interested myself when I was hit with a nasty rootkit (possibly Hacker Defender) and had to reinstall the OS, losing several hours of productive time.
While most of the points I have raised you will no doubt be aware of, I do think it is of high importance that SMEs do have some internal ability to rapidly prevent and clean infection. Too many companies are naively leaving their network wide open to malware while relying on external checks (scansafe), Network firewall checks (Websense) and ineffectual and outdated client antivirus software (Mcafee Antivirus v5 and 4 on some machines).

Sorry for the extended waffle but I have strong opinions on this.

Regards,

RichieB.

soorry; didnt mean to sound so gruff ; a suggestion; have a word with your IT dept and your boss,; as Krizniak has pointed out,; they may think it a good idea for you to have access to specific sites and of use to/for them also; and "promotion" for you too

Hi P;3. Well I think I'll get myself up on a rung of the ladder with this training first before I approach the hallowed leaders. (still being only a mere freshman and all that).
I'll have to make a concerted effort to get through the training during my leisure hours.
I must admit these guys here are pretty thorough with their cleaning and have a really professional attitude. I find it hard to believe that I hadn't heard of this site earlier!