Hi all, old and new....
its anniversary month already? can it be over three years now? WOW guess the annual update is in order...

I sorta broke my neck and spine skiing with Amanda over xmas vacay - that'll teach me to try n enjoy myslef...so excuse bad typing mopre than usual, is very painful. I am mobile, good luck and old skidog habit of setting release tension on bindings NOT equzl release one at a time, will make you sorta roll, both release at same time, you are missile. I split the difference, sorta. going to be relocating to prtland/seattle area, have new job offer with agency out there, also research study on major motor nerve damage from impact/accident I qualify for timeline of injury. sucks, but it will work out eventually.

right now, the comapny computer guy (insert every nasty name adjective you know here) is a real f-wad. he has been making sure that any computer I get does not work right, from security setting so restrictive that it can't "see" 128 bit encyp web sites, offloading my email from company server - yes, all company email, nothing personal, have never accesed anything not work related anyway, but it is a violation of company policy, and RUDE!
He also has been running remote client applications like tight vnc, telling the main boss that "he can't do anything on my work laptop without me being there to give him the info (sic) that appears on the screen"
any ideas, or websites, or orgs to contact would be appreciated, or words of wisdom from you about how to organize and present this info to company bosses would be gruvy.
sorry to be so short w/msg, still getting used to how to shorten writing content from usual ramble tosomething more concise and less hurtful. must be time to get ice n heat paks and painkillers again REEKA, dahling..that msg on the cell was me, ifyuwzwundrn. do u remember the conversation from last yr oct?

health wealth n happiness 2 everybody....I know the wreck coulda been lots worse, and also know many who hurt worse longer right here than I do, and will keep on keepin the whole IW gang in my thought s and prayers.
JJ

OMG! JJ! How long before things are healed all the way? That sounds so awful! I have an uncle who had surgery on the spine near his neck and I know he said it was very hard to get around and do things right afterwards.

Many prayers and sympathetic thoughts, JJ!

Re the IT guy...boy, don't know what you can do about that. Sounds like he's doing it on purpose! Does he do that kind of thing to everyone? Must mess up productivity if he does.

Hope you can get him to stop acting like a superspy and just fix what needs fixing!

im sure you will do alright JJ. look on the bright side.. it could always be worse than what may have really happened.

sadly the latest news about 200+ people trampled because of a muslim pilgramage wasnt nice to hear. :( . i guess "when your time is up you time is up.." but yours JJ is not your time. cheers!

oh yeah.. cant you complain to HR about your problem with the guy?

Wow, JJ.... not the kind of fun I'd want to be dealing with after an accident like that! I hope things heal up well for you...

As for the fun stuff, what kind of work do you do? I can't think of a time where I (as an IT person) or my IT department has *HAD* to access another client PC through VNC or something like that. A server, yes, but not a client PC (which is what I consider yours).

I'd document what is going on with dates and times so that if it should be necessary, you have proof of what has taken place.

the IT guy, the big head chief for the state, and the HR dept are aware of my complaints. the IT guy told them that the remote app, TightVNC- add .com and you have the website, I spent a bit of time on it last week. this remote control program can be used in real time, and from ANY type of internet connection. can dump data to website or any other place admin designates. So, he doesn't even have to have the hard evidence in his local system. what i have so far is....
1. he told the state chief(I bet purchase, NY hasn't gotten a whif-yet) that the program COULD NOT BE USED TO SPY/CONTROL/CHANGE remotely. He told our boss that I had to actively help/cooperate by telling him some sort of security setting that displayed when remote access deployed. Provable lie #1

I have had a local comp store guy look at it. he says settings were to restrictive to even make laptop usable. I am going to find a company that can 'peel' the hardrive and all the administrative levels that have been set on the laptop - I know that the info is in there, I just can't get it. and I have to have it to prove malicious harassment, and my sanity. will check back, but what do you think.

thanks for the thoughts, cloudy, harkolier. things will get better.

Damn JJ, I am really sorry to hear that happen to you bud. I've had broken bones before but never anything to that degree, I hope you recover quick and easy from this ordeal.

Someone screwing with you even after this, thats just low. Is it some kind of company firewall that prevents the data from getting out?

I use TightVNC for some client connections. It gives me remote access and control of a PC. They have to set up the VNC server piece to allow me to connect (and give me an ID and password), but it does give me full control of the machine involved. And I mean full -- I can reboot the machine, change registry settings, download files, or anything else I want (and am allowed to do, permissions-wise).

I'll go back to my prior question: what kind of work do you do? The reason I ask is that you can turn it around, explaining that in order to do your job, you need to be able to do X, Y, and Z, and that you can't now for the following reasons. Then fill in the reasons.

Also, are you hooked into an office or another environment? you could get nasty and stick a little firewall on there that doesn't let anything out...

Do you have proof of anything that he's downloaded from your machine that he's not supposed to have? I'm thinking of things like emails, files, and so on. If you do, these are powerful FUD-creators for the corporate bigwigs you mentioned. (FUD, BTW, is Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). Explain that he's got copies of these files from your machine for no apparent reason... what files may he have from other machines in the company? Contracts? Proposals? Customer lists? Salary reports? Performance reviews? Company plans? The list can go on and on.... and the realization that they could be next can be quite... iluminating...

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk it over. There are ways to secure your system, protect yourself, and launch an offensive to get to where you want to be.

Oh, yeah, one last thing: is this for the new job or the old one? 'Cause it would really, really stink if this were the new one... :(

I'm sorry life isn't tops JJ :( good people like you don't deserve bad shit like this to happen.

How's Amanda and the rest of your wonderful rugrats? Enjoying life I hope [img]smile.gif[/img]

Ouch on both mishaps. God speed to you and your recovery.

You mention chief and state. I'm wandering into you either are a state employee or have access to the state provided LAN. I don't want to get on a tangent here, but what did the fine print state about your privacy on a government unit? Or, is the unit yours, and you briefcase it to and fro the business office and home? I'm at the federal level and know I have absolutly no personal privacy on my unit.

What makes me tink on this is why you. You also may need to look at this from the flip side, some new trojans out there are hi-jacking PCs, and not just for silly stuff. Some of the more malicaious code recently released are looking for a nice fat HDD, and a good quick always on connection. These just sit and wait, and do not draw attention to themselves, until the unit is needed. Then bam, your system has just turned into what you hate. A spam sender, a cc grabber, a porno server, just think of what you hate most about the net, and thats what could be happening. I don't think he has set you up, but he might be, setting up for the rope-in. And in doing so, is allowing you to be found innocent by limiting your options, so when BB comes knocking, he can prove your unknowing, and inability to conduct these dark trades. By allowing the remote to be left open, he can then establish all the data required to finalize the lasso.

My advice is do not put any type of internet block, app on, or use any other type of net monitoring apps. I would also be seeking conversation with the boss on why the IT has put a strangle hold on your system. Especially if you have a suspense on a project that you are not going to make due to not being able to compute.

Good Luck

Ugh, that was awful to hear, hope you have speedy, and successful recovery.

Here in Iceland there are laws against the kind of "personal spying" you are having trouble with, if you were here you could reposrt to Persónuvernd (Personal protection Agency) and your employer would have a heaps of trouble on his hands.
I have no idea if there is the equvilent of that in the US (not with Bush as a president I guess) but I hope you find something

[quote]Originally posted by Felix The Assassin:
Ouch on both mishaps. God speed to you and your recovery.

You mention chief and state. I'm wandering into you either are a state employee or have access to the state provided LAN. I don't want to get on a tangent here, but what did the fine print state about your privacy on a government unit? Or, is the unit yours, and you briefcase it to and fro the business office and home? [QUOTE]

The laptop is company property, yes, we have a state-lan, not govt. He is the one who 'configured' the laptop b4 I got it, so he did not need my cooperation to set up remote access.

[QUOTE] What makes me tink on this is why you. A spam sender, a cc grabber, a porno server, just think of what you hate most about the net, and thats what could be happening. I don't think he has set you up, but he might be, setting up for the rope-in. [QUOTE]

what is going on, since he has got to be SOOOO frustrated by the fact that there is nothing but work on my work comp, that the remote access is to be used to use MY logon to go porno pond splashing, then he will "discover" the baaaad activities of mine using company property. He is the one who setup the laptop b4 I got it, and yes, he left a ton of company info on the laptop as well, sales and $ info that I cannot access ordinarily, so that may be what else he plans to "discover" as well.

[QUOTE] And in doing so, is allowing you to be found innocent by limiting your options, so when BB comes knocking, he can prove your unknowing, and inability to conduct these dark trades. By allowing the remote to be left open, he can then establish all the data required to finalize the lasso.
My advice is do not put any type of internet block, app on, or use any other type of net monitoring apps. I would also be seeking conversation with the boss on why the IT has put a strangle hold on your system. Especially if you have a suspense on a project that you are not going to make due to not being able to compute.[QUOTE]

The head knows about the problems, and the remote app. the only proof I have so far is that the IT told the chief that he COULD NOT remote access the laptop w/o my active cooperation. That is a provable lie, according to the tight vnc website itself. but, I would like to get more on him, so that instead of just singeing his career, It can be burned down into dust and ashes.

Quote:

Good Luck

[ 02-02-2004, 03:51 PM: Message edited by: J.J. ]

If you have access to a STATE owned LAN ask the States IT SysAdmin to help you.

Me tinks we are talking two different directions here. So I will take liberty of a more recent attack notification so we may understand each other better.

<<<Pub date 26 JAN 04.>>>
W32.Novarg.A@mm is a mass-mailing worm that arrives as an attachment with the file extension .bat, .cmd, .exe, .pif, .scr, or .zip.

When a computer is infected, the worm sets up a backdoor into the system by opening TCP ports 3127 through 3198, which can potentially allow an attacker to connect to the computer and use it as a proxy to gain access to its network resources.

In addition, the backdoor can download and execute arbitrary files.

There is a 25% chance that a computer infected by the worm will perform a Denial of Service (DoS) on February 1, 2004 starting at 16:09:18 UTC, which is also the same as 08:09:18 PST, based on the machine's local system date/time. If the worm does start the DoS attack, it will not mass mail itself. It also has a trigger date to stop spreading/DoS-attacking on February 12, 2004. While the worm will stop on February 12, 2004, the backdoor component will continue to function after this date.
<<<End Pub.>>>

Now let me re-cap. If the IT is on to something, you are clueless. He should be trying to protect you and the company from any legal wrongdoing, and protecting assests.

Now you state he did this prior to you receiveing the unit, who was the previous user? How volatile is the market you are in? What type of secrets could be lost? Better yet, what kind of deceitful, technically incorrect, secrets could bring devestation to a competitor?

To you this is a why me, end of the world event. To me, this is a challenge of the career as an IT.

Have figured a way to make the laptop useable, right now, and save all the IT guy's dirty deeds at the same time. Am going to tell them to buy a new hardrive for the thing, and just completely take out the old one.
that way , I can do my work w/o worrying about him getting in there and mucking about after the local comp fixer does his thing.
AND, it lets me send the hard drive off to a company who specializes in peeling the layers of the onion, and that report will suffice as far as any other evidence about his nefarious activities.
I'll put my own copy of win2kpro on the thing, be the administrator, and he can knowck on the door all he wants. as far as the offer of a firewall, and a way to catch him at his game, PLEASE DO TELL!! I know he will try, and that would be some delicious icing on the cake. So, please e-me or send a pm about what sort of trap I might be able to set for this loose canon, I want th3e others to know b4 I go what he did.
thanks for all the suggestions, btw. [img]smile.gif[/img] - me smiling for the first time in a while.

JJ, I am sorry to hear about the skiing accident, OUCH bud I hope for your speedy recovery and luck on the work front.

VNC is a widely used program for adminstration/IT people to help the end user "fix" there problem. You can go into the admin tools on the control paneland disable it so the only way he can use it is if you physically activate the program. I had an IT guy who thought he was going to one up me at work, and I proved him wrong [img]smile.gif[/img] VNC can and is used for "spying" on what an end user is doing and the user may not even be aware. There are several different options for the admin to use on it, and one is a simple observation mode that will show nothing to the end user, if they are activily using your PC the VNC icon in the task bar will change colors.

Good luck bud and I hope you nail his arse. You canalos check the event monitor in the control panel as well to see if there has been anyone other then you accessing your comp.

gee how IT people can be so evil now :(