Spying

What if  you wanted to read someone's email who works in your office? It would be really easy, wouldn't it? It would be immoral, but is it illegal? I shouldn't even be thinking about this, I realize.
Have you ever tried it?

Dr. Real PC
Thursday, July 15, 2004

If you have a hub and not a router in your office, get Ethereal. You'll be able to spy on more than just Email.

If you have a router, you have to do an arp spoof and then use Ethereal, which I've never tried (I imagine that it causes noticeable network lag).

Wayne
Thursday, July 15, 2004

Dr. Real PC,

You got a crush on someone at work?  Awwww.. Isn't that cute?!    :)

awwww
Thursday, July 15, 2004

If you're seriously considering doing any of these things you should probably go home, brew some tea, and seriously evaluate your worth as a human being and your net burden on society.

muppet
Thursday, July 15, 2004

At my company, you only have to know the PEIN ( Personal Employee Identification Number ) of the person you want to spy, which is available on the LDAP BTW, take the last 4 digits, and you have the default password which 90% of the workers around me haven't changed.

I work for a big IT consulting company. We certainly do apply the security best practices internally...

Better post anonymous this time...
Thursday, July 15, 2004

Management does it all the time and it is completely legal for them. If you do it however, you had better be authorized by management to do so. There could be sh|tloads of legal trouble heading your way if you overstep your authority.  And not only because of usurping management's power but those you spied upon could slap you silly too.

old_timer
Thursday, July 15, 2004

Work for CGI anon?

.
Thursday, July 15, 2004

Who cares if is illegal or not.  If you get caught, it would get you fired, everything else is just gravy.

Steamrolla
Thursday, July 15, 2004

Get a new job if you're so dissatisfied with your current one.

www.MarkTAW.com
Thursday, July 15, 2004

On a related note, I once got an email intended for a coworker with a name similar to mine sent to me by mistake. Wow, I suspected she was a little wild, but...

Anony Coward
Thursday, July 15, 2004

At home I "monitor" the network connection at random times.  Soemtimes in realtime with ethereal, sometimes just checking the firewall logs (where everything is recorded, and never deleted).

Its not spying because my kids know that I'm doing it.  I tell them I do it and they should expect it.

As for work, I expect that they monitor the wire as well.  I assume they know I hit JoS numerous timer/day, along with a few other non-work related web addresses.

void* where( prohibited )
Thursday, July 15, 2004

Ethereal? PEIN's? I don't need any of those. The Comp Sci Ph.D who sits in the next cubicle over never locks his computer. Like "Better post anonymous this time...", we're also a large IT services company.

Derek
Thursday, July 15, 2004

I recently worked in an office where the network was 100% Wifi.  Had to run ethereal for a while to track down a problem,  accidently set it to the wrong interface (my testbed was wired), went to a meeting, and when I came back noticed I'd managed to grab the owner's morning email dump to his laptop.

Didn't read it, didn't mention it, just deleted it and hoped nobody knew I ran ethereal sometimes.

Snotnose
Thursday, July 15, 2004

Part of my role is to monitor network comms. When I first started there were the usual pr0n surfers about. I casually spread the word that Big Brother does watch, does take note, and does have to and will raise an instant dismissal if anyone's caught. I haven't had a problem since.

Big Bro
Thursday, July 15, 2004

As for email, I monitor a number of staff addresses to help filter spam. I don't read their emails, I don't feel the need, and you can tell most spam by the subject "She likes to spread peanut butter on ..."

Big Bro
Thursday, July 15, 2004

It's alot easier than that, all you need it to wait for them to backup their outlook folders to the network (usually once in a couple of months) and then read the backups. Easy isn't it?

Jimmy Bob's uncle
Friday, July 16, 2004

> PEIN's? I don't need any of those

I can sell you something to increase its size if you want.


Oh. Wait...

Friday, July 16, 2004

I have a home LAN with 2 computers.  My son stays up late IMing his friends and surfing the net on one computer.  I run ethereal overnight on the other and snatch his complete conversations.  Moral implications?  I don't care - I want to know if my son is getting high/laid/whatever.

It's amazing how shallow kids are these days.  Typical conversation:
kid1: whatz zup?
kid2: nothing
kid1: what u doing?
kid2: chillin
kid1: hahahaha

I did find out he had a party at his other 'rent's house with beer and pot when they were away for vacation.  I'll never let him be overnight at our house overnight now.

5v3n
Friday, July 16, 2004

> I want to know if my son is getting high/laid/whatever

Why? Would you be jealous? For all you know he's doing all that anyway and doesn't IM about it from home because
a) he knows you are bugging his communications; and
b) he's too knackered from shagging his girlfriend and too stoned out of his head to actually life a finger to type, all you are seeing is a small script sending fake messages.

Friday, July 16, 2004

booooooooooooooooo

if your idea of parenting is spying on your kid, then you are an utter and complete failure as a father.  If you'd done things right, you'd already KNOW what he was up to.

Moron.

muppet
Friday, July 16, 2004

oh, and your remark about how shallow kids are these days:  what you're essentially saying is, "I raised a shallow kid."

Kudos.

muppet
Friday, July 16, 2004

"if your idea of parenting is spying on your kid, then you are an utter and complete failure as a father.  If you'd done things right, you'd already KNOW what he was up to."

I agree with the previous poster who TELLS his kids that he reads all their online conversations.  Much more effective, I think.  Then it becomes a preventative measure.

Jim Rankin
Friday, July 16, 2004

Jim -

you have completely lost touch with reality, please check yourself into a mental institution immediately.

If you tell your child that you are monitoring all of his/her online communications, he/she will simply switch to alternate methods.  Do you think children need the internet to get into trouble and do what they please?

Moron.

muppet
Friday, July 16, 2004

> Work for CGI anon?

Yep. Guess you work there too. Where do you work? Click on my email is you wish to talk...

Better post anonymous this time...
Friday, July 16, 2004

>Moron.

Kinda negates everything you have to say when you resort to calling people names, don't ya think?

Shithead.

Not-MSBob
Friday, July 16, 2004

Moron applied, so I used it.

Not only will your children switch to alternate communication venues if you declare that you are spying on them, but they'll near certainly go out of their way to *get* into the sort of trouble you'd like them to avoid simply to rebel against the injustice.

muppet
Friday, July 16, 2004

I'm not sure about the spying on kids thing. It is a far more subtle dilemma than some replies here indicate.
What I do suggest is that if you spy, you can't eact on the info gained witout giving the game away, so save action for a real lifetreatening occasion. A pot or drinking binge party seems to me not such an occasion.

Think it trough before you start.

Just me (Sir to you)
Saturday, July 17, 2004

There's a great This American Life (a great radio show) episode about a guy who spied on his kid:

"When the Wall Came Tumbling Down. The story of a teenager, illegal drug use, lying, stealing, and a kid's life changed completely when he heard how he sounded on the phone."

http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/98/90.html

(audio is online)

Anonymous
Monday, July 19, 2004

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