"Audit Software"
- Thread starter stinkyboy
- Start date
work computer or personal?
Most of the time it just looks for apps installed and verifies they are legit. On a Mac, unless you get all crazy, I wouldn't sweat it.
I know when the IT guys see my funky ass linux setup, they just walk away. 75% of the developers in my group run a similar setup, I just leaves us alone.
I know when the IT guys see my funky ass linux setup, they just walk away. 75% of the developers in my group run a similar setup, I just leaves us alone.
If it is a work computer let him do it. It's your company's computer not yours. You could be a dick about it, but he is probably doing it because the company is either a.) going through a software audit or b.) afraid that they might have to go through one.
Either way if you mess with the process it could cost your company hundreds of thousands of dollars. And most likely cost you your job when they find a six figure legal bill and track it back to you.
Either way if you mess with the process it could cost your company hundreds of thousands of dollars. And most likely cost you your job when they find a six figure legal bill and track it back to you.
It could be any of a number of things, actually. Given that you're in an art agency, it may be something to help keep track of Adobe licenses since they're so rabid about suing people who are shady about licensing.
It may also be actual system auditing, trying to track the time you spend in various applications, or determine where your system resources are going, or figure out how many applications are patched or unpatched, or simply to determine if unauthorized software is installed. That's less common but certainly possible.
Austin is right, though. In either event, you should leave it alone. If it's the former, you could royally screw things up for the company. If it's the latter, they're going to notice when they go to pull your log file and it's missing.
It may also be actual system auditing, trying to track the time you spend in various applications, or determine where your system resources are going, or figure out how many applications are patched or unpatched, or simply to determine if unauthorized software is installed. That's less common but certainly possible.
Austin is right, though. In either event, you should leave it alone. If it's the former, you could royally screw things up for the company. If it's the latter, they're going to notice when they go to pull your log file and it's missing.
Sounds like your company is in the sh!t with BSA.
I suggest you leave the software alone if you like your job. It's probably going to cost the company tens of thousands of dollars and they will not be in a good mood about it.
With BSA, it's all about invoices. They better have a valid invoice for every stinking piece of software. Boxes, disks etc are worthless.
I suggest you leave the software alone if you like your job. It's probably going to cost the company tens of thousands of dollars and they will not be in a good mood about it.
With BSA, it's all about invoices. They better have a valid invoice for every stinking piece of software. Boxes, disks etc are worthless.
hahaha, now the man knows every website you visit & every keystroke you make!!
We have some stupid ass agent that runs in the background here. We were bluntly told that if we f*ck with it, we will be walked out the front door by security.
A coworker worked at a place that tracked your keystrokes and if your computer sat idle for a certain amount of time an email was sent to your supervisor, and then they would come over and talk to you
Talk about a programming sweat shop
We have several auditing software packages running on our work computers. When they all kick in at the same time along with virus scan it takes up 100% of system resources and my computer becomes useless for hours unless I reboot. It has easily reduced my productivity by a large margin. When I have a lot of real work to do I take a long lunch and do it at home on my own computer. Our Corporate IT sucks sweaty nuts.
We have to sign off on an employee handbook that includes an insert by our IT consulting group (I use that term extremely loosely, but it's more specific than "morons") with a big, bold paragraph about how they monitor all internet activity and inappropriate use of the internet will result in immediate termination. And they do, indeed, have a router upstairs that is capable of doing that.
Except I had to install a new piece of hardware upstairs and found out that, well, the $2000 router is plugged in and turned on, but does not connect to, and has NEVER been connected to, any network. It just hums and consumes electricity.
Except I had to install a new piece of hardware upstairs and found out that, well, the $2000 router is plugged in and turned on, but does not connect to, and has NEVER been connected to, any network. It just hums and consumes electricity.
It's worse: we lease all of our equipment from these people. Desktops, monitors, everything that has an inventory tag on it is leased. We're leasing that router for a monthly fee.
I'm not about to mention it, though, since it will likely result in it actually being put to use and I'm just as happy not having our traffic monitored.
I'm not about to mention it, though, since it will likely result in it actually being put to use and I'm just as happy not having our traffic monitored.
They claim they watch our Internet usage, but no one has ever said anything to me (I do think its tracked, but never looked at). I work for the State, and I bet one of these days a paper will do an "investigation" and be appalled when they come across my logs. All of our emails are public record as well
That is awesome.
I've considered starting a musical equipment rental service. I was a rental manager at the stage lighting company I worked for. It's quite the racket.
If reaches for your "Mac", smack him on the knuckles with a ruler.
Then demand that he take you out for dinner and a movie first.
Then demand that he take you out for dinner and a movie first.
Billgatus of Borg will f*ck you with no dinner OR movie....
Generally, most places don't look at individual use unless they have a reason to. (IE: you are screwing up at work, and they need justification to remove your access or fire you).
They claim they watch our Internet usage, but no one has ever said anything to me (I do think its tracked, but never looked at). I work for the State, and I bet one of these days a paper will do an "investigation" and be appalled when they come across my logs. All of our emails are public record as well
When I worked at Mountain Hardwear I had to explain to one of Columbia Sportswear's IT guys what the strange network traffic they were seeing was.
(this was just after Columbia bought Mountain Hardwear)
"Uh....that would be the Halo matches at lunch time...We play Halo and drink beer."
"Oh. Don't tell anyone you even told me that."
