What would you do if you got this email? Relevant to FSF

[ChicagoFats]

Got this email today about noon. Some commie bullshit. Luckily it ended up not applying to me, but it was going to be a see ya later if they tried to enforce that shit.





Dear All,



PLEASE READ THIS ENIRE EMAIL CAREFULLY. YOU WILL NEED TO TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION IN ORDER TO AVOID CONNECTIVITY ISSUES.



In an effort to enhance XX security measures, and for the protection our business, within approximately the next hour XX IT will be providing you with instructions to download new security software. To ensure continued connectivity to XX’s systems, and avoid being blocked, it will be very important that you please complete this process today by 9:00pm EST.



To further explain, we recently outsourced a security consulting team to test and ensure the integrity of our environment. They have advised us that every computer or other device that accesses the XX network through any means, including by remote desktop, Radmin, other VPN, Office 365, or otherwise, will be required to be monitored by new security software that XX has recently licensed. If you are using a personal computer or other device to access XX’s network, then you will need to download this software through a link that XXIT will be providing.



The security software will provide XX and its service providers with broad access to the device and the information on the device. This will primarily include access to, monitoring of, and storage of logs, executable files and endpoints, but it will also be possible for XX and its service providers to view other data on the device, including any sensitive personal information you may have stored on the device. While it is not our intention to access or review such sensitive personal information XX and its service providers require your consent to do so.



BY DOWNLOADING OR RUNNING ANY SECURITY SOFTWARE, YOU CONSENT TO THE ACCESS, MONITORING, COLLECTION AND STORAGE BY XX AND ITS SERVICE PROVIDERS OF ANY AND ALL INFORMATION ON ANY DEVICE THROUGH WHICH YOU CONDUCT XX BUSINESS.



Again, this action is for the long-term protection of XX, its affiliates, their respective personnel and our business.

Any devices that are not running the security software by tomorrow, May 6, 2021, may be blocked from accessing XX’s network. You may, however, continue to use web-based applications that do not touch XX’s network. After receiving the download instructions, please feel free to contact with any questions or for assistance.



If at any time after downloading the required software, you do not wish to continue running the software, then XX can work with you to purchase and install new equipment owned by for your use for business.



Sincerely,

XX Management

 

[QuanChi]

Tough situation. It’s obvious what is going on here, but if you don’t have an exit strategy you almost just have to lick the boot. Government outsources the oppression to the corporate world so they don’t have to look bad. It’s disgusting.

Similar situations to companies attempting to require a vaccination. Do you stand up for what you believe in? I think it largely depends on what your personal life looks like. Which hill will you choose to die on? The time is coming where we are going to have to make that choice, or conform to the new system.

 

[shiv]

I see this every single day at work logging on to government networks.

Are they saying: if you use your personal system to log on to our network, you must have our spyware installed on your system? If so that’s pretty fucked. Although, nobodies digital privacy is really private.

For me it’s almost like, knock yourself out if you want to spy on my shit. I already got plenty of people following me. If I want to have a private communication I know how to do it. I just accept I’m always being monitored

 

[ChicagoFats]

Tough situation. It’s obvious what is going on here, but if you don’t have an exit strategy you almost just have to lick the boot. Government outsources the oppression to the corporate world so they don’t have to look bad. It’s disgusting.

Similar situations to companies attempting to require a vaccination. Do you stand up for what you believe in? I think it largely depends on what your personal life looks like. Which hill will you choose to die on? The time is coming where we are going to have to make that choice, or conform to the new system.

Its possible this was the hill I was going to die on, luckily i didn't have to decide.

I guess I could have a whole separate computer that connects through that VPN only, but what kind of asshole gives you only 6-7 hours to figure that shit out?

 

[QuanChi]

Its possible this was the hill I was going to die on, luckily i didn't have to decide.

I guess I could have a whole separate computer that connects through that VPN only, but what kind of asshole gives you only 6-7 hours to figure that shit out?

Even then if that separate computer ever touches your personal network, they can get anything they want. Seems like an incredibly invasive maneuver they attempted

 

[ChicagoFats]

Even then if that separate computer ever touches your personal network, they can get anything they want. Seems like an incredibly invasive maneuver they attempted

I feel like I am missing details or something. But for whatever reason it pissed me off.

It feels like "let us have access to all your shit or else you can't work tommorrow. Damn the consequences."

 

[Chris Farley]

Used to see this all the time when I was in the army. It’s called phishing bruh.

 

[QuanChi]

I feel like I am missing details or something. But for whatever reason it pissed me off.

It feels like "let us have access to all your shit or else you can't work tommorrow. Damn the consequences."

Nah I think you were rightfully pissed off. It’s like the were sneaking around trying to monitor people. But that is not a legitimate approach IMO. You are putting a ton of trust in a “security company”. They are gonna put software on someone’s personal computer. If that personal computer is on a home network, they can twin any data on your personal network. But it’s not like that’s not already being done in some form or fashion by some organizations. But why give just a random “security company” free reign as well. Pretty sketch

 

[ChicagoFats]

Used to see this all the time when I was in the army. It’s called phishing bruh.

It was not a phishing email.

I sent an email asking wtf was going on and a tech nerd replied that the it didnt apply to the VPN i was connecting to.

Not sure, maybe my vpn is next?

 

[shiv]

Privacy concerns like this are something that we can guarentee to our members on the FSF. When we were originally drawing up business plan with mission, vision, values, one of the priorities that came up was: not turning the customer base into a data product. We’ve got to figure out ways to keep other crawlers from farming this place, but we can make the promise that we, as the free speech forum, will not farm or sell our users data. Or use it for manipulation, etc

 

[Chris Farley]

Interesting...

 

[shiv]

Now that doesn’t mean that we can’t or won’t data farm other places because if you want to compete in this arena you need to have the tools to fight dirty in cyberspace. Technology and psychology- but I’m on a bit on a tangent here

 

[Quatch$]

Now that doesn’t mean that we can’t or won’t data farm other places because if you want to compete in this arena you need to have the tools to fight dirty in cyberspace. Technology and psychology- but I’m on a bit on a tangent here

I love it when you talk nerd.

 

[shiv]

I love it when you talk nerd.

I usually try and keep my power level dialed down lol

 

[STL_22]

Why doesn’t this company provide you with a laptop if they’re requiring such strict security measures?

Office 365 has its own tool for this also that can be used for personal devices so wonder why they aren’t just using that.

 

[shiv]

Why doesn’t this company provide you with a laptop if they’re requiring such strict security measures?

Office 365 has its own tool for this also that can be used for personal devices so wonder why they aren’t just using that.

Great point

 

[thenick_ttu]

Does your work give you a computer? If so, then it seems pretty simple. Only access your work stuff on your work computer. Don’t use a personal computer or your cell phone. Obviously do ONLY work stuff on that computer. Nothing personal. If anyone asks why you aren’t responding to email so much just explain that the recent security changes have forced you to delete work email from your phone.

 

[ChicagoFats]

It sounds simple, but I have multiple businesses and using a different computer for each one .... that seems ridiculous and cumbersome.

No they don’t provide computers. Maybe they did for other employees and that’s why I was excluded?

Above all, pissed they sent out an email with 6 hours notice. Pretty piss poor if you ask me

 

[shiv]

It sounds simple, but I have multiple businesses and using a different computer for each one .... that seems ridiculous and cumbersome.

No they don’t provide computers. Maybe they did for other employees and that’s why I was excluded?

Above all, pissed they sent out an email with 6 hours notice. Pretty piss poor if you ask me

Just depends: do you want convenience or do you want security and privacy.

That is one of THE big questions on the tech world these days. I did the privacy thing for a few months but it is a pain in the ass. I hate google, but there was a sale on google smart home shit and I’ve got my house tricked out with that shit right now.

It’s one of the biggest issues on the digital forum world right now. People just use what they are used to, even when their privacy is encroached on. The main board and the oath agreement are an example. And with Facebook it’s pretty obvious

Search engines: we know what google is. DuckDuckGo pays much more attention to privacy, but the search results aren’t as good when you try to find something.

But yeah, agree that it was a piss poor move

 

[tiderollsonu]

Not really surprising when you see the costs of having a breach, to have forensics done after a crypto attack can be anywhere form $100k-300k for a small under 50 computer network plus any hit the company takes if it gets out that their network was compromised.

Most of my clients require the corporate AntiVirus installed on personal devices if it touches the company networks or RDS servers. We also require 2 factor authenticator to access network resources at most clients.

Easy solution is to have a separate work/personal computer which I highly recommend. Could even go as far as to turn on a guest wifi on your home router (most decent routers can do this) so it is only connected to the Internet and cannot see the other computers on your home network.

 

[shiv]

Not really surprising when you see the costs of having a breach, to have forensics done after a crypto attack can be anywhere form $100k-300k for a small under 50 computer network plus any hit the company takes if it gets out that their network was compromised.

Most of my clients require the corporate AntiVirus installed on personal devices if it touches the company networks or RDS servers. We also require 2 factor authenticator to access network resources at most clients.

Easy solution is to have a separate work/personal computer which I highly recommend. Could even go as far as to turn on a guest wifi on your home router (most decent routers can do this) so it is only connected to the Internet and cannot see the other computers on your home network.

Good points here

 

[Rebarcock.]

Got this email today about noon. Some commie bullshit. Luckily it ended up not applying to me, but it was going to be a see ya later if they tried to enforce that shit.





Dear All,



PLEASE READ THIS ENIRE EMAIL CAREFULLY. YOU WILL NEED TO TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION IN ORDER TO AVOID CONNECTIVITY ISSUES.



In an effort to enhance XX security measures, and for the protection our business, within approximately the next hour XX IT will be providing you with instructions to download new security software. To ensure continued connectivity to XX’s systems, and avoid being blocked, it will be very important that you please complete this process today by 9:00pm EST.



To further explain, we recently outsourced a security consulting team to test and ensure the integrity of our environment. They have advised us that every computer or other device that accesses the XX network through any means, including by remote desktop, Radmin, other VPN, Office 365, or otherwise, will be required to be monitored by new security software that XX has recently licensed. If you are using a personal computer or other device to access XX’s network, then you will need to download this software through a link that XXIT will be providing.



The security software will provide XX and its service providers with broad access to the device and the information on the device. This will primarily include access to, monitoring of, and storage of logs, executable files and endpoints, but it will also be possible for XX and its service providers to view other data on the device, including any sensitive personal information you may have stored on the device. While it is not our intention to access or review such sensitive personal information XX and its service providers require your consent to do so.



BY DOWNLOADING OR RUNNING ANY SECURITY SOFTWARE, YOU CONSENT TO THE ACCESS, MONITORING, COLLECTION AND STORAGE BY XX AND ITS SERVICE PROVIDERS OF ANY AND ALL INFORMATION ON ANY DEVICE THROUGH WHICH YOU CONDUCT XX BUSINESS.



Again, this action is for the long-term protection of XX, its affiliates, their respective personnel and our business.

Any devices that are not running the security software by tomorrow, May 6, 2021, may be blocked from accessing XX’s network. You may, however, continue to use web-based applications that do not touch XX’s network. After receiving the download instructions, please feel free to contact with any questions or for assistance.



If at any time after downloading the required software, you do not wish to continue running the software, then XX can work with you to purchase and install new equipment owned by for your use for business.



Sincerely,

XX Management

Comply or die

 

[TheResister]

Privacy concerns like this are something that we can guarentee to our members on the FSF. When we were originally drawing up business plan with mission, vision, values, one of the priorities that came up was: not turning the customer base into a data product. We’ve got to figure out ways to keep other crawlers from farming this place, but we can make the promise that we, as the free speech forum, will not farm or sell our users data. Or use it for manipulation, etc

PM sent.