Geek Powers...Activate

[sereneorange]

I have always been blocked from reading livejournal from work. Even
when I recieved my emailed comments, I couldn't reply to them because our
security would catch it.

Today I made a greatest journal ever and
had a link pointing back to LJ. I clicked on it. It took me to LJ. Hrm. I
clicked friends. There you all were. Hrm. I commented. I recieved emailed
comment back and when I replied from my email it worked. Since I doubt
Bank1 got really lax in security all of a sudden, any geeks want to
explain how this might have happened?

Comments

[0112358132134.livejournal.com]

Stuff like that is usually monitored/blocked using a program in the back-end such as Websense (that's what we use here). Sometimes the program can crash or a service fail on the server that hosts the program and it causes the program to not do it's job...it's happened a couple times here and it takes a few days to catch it. Also, sometimes IT might have to disable the monitor to do maintenance, upgrade, etc. However, it could be that you lucked out and the list of blocked sites auto-updated itself and for some reason livejournal is no longer on the list. But eh, I'm pretty sure that if you were to try and go to livejournal on Monday or Tuesday it'll be blocked again.

[0112358132134.livejournal.com]

Oh, and livejournal isn't really blocked as a security procedure...it's more than likely just blocked because your employer doesn't want you wasting your time doing personal stuff on the job.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

well...crappity crap crap on a cracker.
they technically have email blocked too for security. They just do not happen to know about mail. stephendukes. com. We are not allowed to have cell phones or cameras at desks either, although everyone does. all written documents go in shredder, not trash.
Basically it is set up to fall just short of searching us before we exit building.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

funny how they are about that, huh?

[0112358132134.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know how it is. I've worked for a financial institution for 3 years now. I'm allowed to have a cell-phone because I work in IT and well...they're a requirement for us. And what do u mean by them having email blocked? You mean they screen your incoming email, right? Or just block third-party email providers like yahoo and hotmail? We have programs that run constantly on our email servers that automatically screen email and look for keywords and attachments so that we can block spam, viruses, and other "bad" email. We TRY to block IM clients and stuff like that too...but they're not as easy to block as it seems. Since most of them don't actually communicate using http requests, we can't really set up filters with our current software to block 'em. I personally think it's kinda ridiculous how much crap they block or try to block, but eh...we just do what we're told.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

we cannot get to web mail (yahoo hotmail earthlink aol) or any messangers. I constantly encounter security pop up screens blocking sites for humor or profanity

[benot-halfassed.livejournal.com]

I love that icon you're using. Gotta love Office Space!

I used to work in finance doing 401(k) plans. They were pretty cool w/ websites and checking email and stuff. But they were said to monitor things. I'm surprised I never got busted for anything b/c I was always going to LJ and checking my email via aol.com!

[0112358132134.livejournal.com]

yeah, websense-like programs block all types of websites. what kind of bugs me is that the version we use looks for keywords in URLs as well as on the page along with the actual block list...which means that if i were to try to type in something that is completely innocent like www.thatsexcellent.com (I just made that url up as an example...haha, I dunno if that's an actual website) it would be blocked for "Adult Content" because the words "thats" and "excellent" combine at the letters "sex". Shitty.

[0112358132134.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and live up this whole accidental access thing as much as you can...haha. The exact same thing happened to me one day when I was a lowly student-intern with no web access...for some reason one day I accidentally clicked an outside link and it actually worked. I was so happy. I was surfin' non-stop for like two days...until finally IT noticed the problem and fixed websense. It was very dissapointing.

[onnotangu.livejournal.com]

well Ford is a lot more lax about things. i have my trillian running through a usb drive and bouncing off a euro proxy that lets me out. and as for websites, as long as i'm using a bastard plugin of firefox i can get out and surf most sites. only the heavy nono sites are blocked.

[0112358132134.livejournal.com]

What Firefox plugin are you using? I'm kinda curious.

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

A few years ago quite a few of my wife's colleagues were fired for unauthorized web use on the job. Fortunately my wife survived that purge and has been careful ever since. If you need to keep your job find out your employer's policy on web use and don't take chances. On the other hand if you don't mind being fired surf to your heart's content!

[prowly.livejournal.com]

... the best way to explain it is that it could be that they have the URL blocked, but you might still be able to get around it by using Babel Fish since you wouldn't be accessing the site directly. Type in the url for LJ (or any other URL) under 'Translate a Web page' and then select any language to english. It may or may not work. Also, you might encounter a word or 2 now and again that doesn't make sense because it exists in the 'from' language and was "translated" to English.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

I know you asked him, but I use deepest sender for lj posts, and translation panel and blog this for blogger. I love firefox!

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

they just say no porn and no gambling.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

oh.. and no surfing while on a call

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

interesting idea. How deliciously geeky of you

[onnotangu.livejournal.com]

something i found floating around. it's like a striped version fo firefox.. no install just unzip and go..problem is it crashes like the Hiedenburg blimp.

[caprica.livejournal.com]

don't you just fucking love those technological loop holes?

i think that they can happen, definitely, without explanation. I'm unsure, though.

(boy, what a helpful comment! forgive the still drunken one)

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

I strongly suspect they will figure it out and fix it by Monday .

[prowly.livejournal.com]

so then why is LJ blocked?

[prowly.livejournal.com]

I'm not geeky! I uhmmm... well it wasn't my idea... I heard it from a friend. of a friend. who heard it from this guy. in Montana. who lived with Sheep. No, not sheep - Sheep. That was his gay lover's name. They were goat farmers.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

because they hate me.

[prowly.livejournal.com]

of course they do

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

*pout*

[prowly.livejournal.com]

were you able to access it via babel fish?

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

haven;t needed to. Can still get to lj

[prowly.livejournal.com]

hoorah!