[SofaKingBanned]

Someone used my work computer after I left yesterday and cleared everything.

Now my passwords, etc. are all gone. It's not a big deal since I saved them elsewhere, but now I'm concerned that someone who knows a little bit is using my computer at night. I'll be pissed if they download some malicious software accidentally, so I put a warning on my computers.

Roar!

I think I'll take one of my obsolete computers and setup a public workstation.

Are your primary computers secure when you're not there?

 

[binary visions]

I've got a U3-enabled USB drive. It's got Firefox installed on it and several other utilities, including an anti-virus scanner.

When I pop the drive into a computer, I have full access to my browser, all of my bookmarks, various utilities and anything else I want, and the virus scanner makes sure it stays clean. Everything is encrypted and requires a password upon insertion to access.

When I eject the drive, all of my personal stuff comes with me, nice and secure. I keep a handful of important work documents on there, too. Worst case is that someone else downloads malicious software onto my work desktop and a handful of work-related stuff gets lost, and they get blamed with the downtime. Anything on the network is automatically backed up so almost everything should be safe.

I've had the drive for a while but didn't really start using it until lately, now that I'm at different school computers throughout the week, it's really damn handy.

 

[Kornphlake]

Someone used my work computer after I left yesterday and cleared everything.

Now my passwords, etc. are all gone. It's not a big deal since I saved them elsewhere, but now I'm concerned that someone who knows a little bit is using my computer at night. I'll be pissed if they download some malicious software accidentally, so I put a warning on my computers.

Roar!

I think I'll take one of my obsolete computers and setup a public workstation.

Are your primary computers secure when you're not there?

If it were me I'd sent a message to the IT manager instead of posting about it here. I think that the files that make up your personal profile including cookies and passwords should be encrypted and only accessible to you and adminstrators. Someone with administrative privelages was poking around in your machine, it may be something as simple as they were installing software patches and noticed that you have lots of cookies so they cleared everything or it could be that someone with admin privleages is trying to get you fired or anything in between. It could be that your profile isn't secured properly and your admin should fix it before something that may hurt your employer happens.

 

[SofaKingBanned]

I'm the "IT Dept".

It's not job, file, or information security that I'm worried about or I might do what BV does -- neat idea.

I don't mind my co-workers using my computers, I just don't want them crashing me

 

[Kornphlake]

Got it, I was imagining you work at a place like I do where there are a few thousand computers and information security is taken very seriously, talented and hardworking people have lost their jobs because their workstation was unsecure. It sounds like you think it was just somebody who wanted to check traffic before heading home and your computer was the easiest to get to. I know my dad is really anal about deleting his cookies, history and temp files every time he shuts down his browser, he's a firefox convert now because it will do it automatically. Maybe my dad was using your computer.