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Thread ID: 101852	2009-07-29 22:15:00	Real Crime, TVOne last night - Spyware	pctek (84)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
796343	2009-07-29 22:15:00	Who saw the program about the headmaster in NZ who was totally destroyed by pop-up porn on the school laptop? It annoys me this sort of thing happens, and never do they ever show any IT "expert" state the simple measures you can and should take to prevent it. I see this all the time with corporates, big businesses, even small businesses. They run something like a client/server version of Nortons and religiously do the MS updates and think they are protected. I come along and do a bit of a HJT and SPybot search and oh look, masses of malware...... Fisher & Paykel was the same when I worked there. They ran Nortons Client/server. It was utterly useless. Not that you could tell the senior Server IT people. Most of them just blamed users if they cared at all.	pctek (84)
796344	2009-07-29 22:18:00	i saw a bit of that last night, they were going on about how the laptops wernt set up properly by the employers. hardly far on the employee	GameJunkie (72)
796345	2009-07-30 00:38:00	i saw a bit of that last night, they were going on about how the laptops wernt set up properly by the employers. hardly far on the employee A corporate laptop fleet is the bane of any IT person; they're hard to keep protected, and up-to-date, and are prone to being used and abused in ways no desktop would ever be, not to mentioned being nicked very easily! AV software is getting better at protecting mobile devices, but it's a toughy	nofam (9009)
796346	2009-07-30 02:21:00	And it is still the IT persons fault if there are any problems....	Gobe1 (6290)
796347	2009-07-30 02:22:00	I ran into a similar problem when I was a Board of Trustees Chair, a teacher's laptop was found to have 'undesirable material' on it . He denied all knowledge of it, but was caught up in the disciplinary process regardless . We needed a view that was independent of the IT department, so I took a look through it in some depth 'behind the scenes' and found a modest amount of 'teen' stuff hidden away, and a very small amount of 'undesirable' . Checking through index . dat files revealed more telling evidence of suspect browsing as well . We figured that the teen stuff wasn't his and after further questioning we found out he had been letting his son use it unsupervised . He followed that up and the son admitted doing some surfing on the dark side, so the teacher got a slap on the wrist for breaching the rules of laptop usage and the son got whatever his father deemed appropriate . A more cavalier approach would have seen us lose a good teacher over a simple supervision lapse, that he may not have even known about . I have to say though, on a properly configured and set-up computer, porn pop-ups shouldn't be happening . I don't get any, ever, and it is just as well or Mrs T would have my guts for garters . . . :horrified Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
796348	2009-07-30 03:26:00	I have to say though, on a properly configured and set-up computer, porn pop-ups shouldn't be happening . This is my point . All the time there's stuff in the news about malware - on Corporate PCs, NASA!! even, governmnet PCs, business PCs . I've never seen one properly protected . I have friends working in government depts and large businesses, they don't have a clue . One of them, and I once worked with him, when he asked me about his own PC, said whats spyware??!! OK, spyware didn't exist once, but things change, why don't these IT people do something about it?	pctek (84)
796349	2009-07-30 04:07:00	This is my point . All the time there's stuff in the news about malware - on Corporate PCs, NASA!! even, governmnet PCs, business PCs . I've never seen one properly protected . I have friends working in government depts and large businesses, they don't have a clue . One of them, and I once worked with him, when he asked me about his own PC, said whats spyware??!! OK, spyware didn't exist once, but things change, why don't these IT people do something about it? Because, as you say they're out of touch and don't have a clue . Most senior IT people just keep their IT systems running . . . . it's all about working in an enclosed space . That's why functional consultants, PMO's etc exist . When it comes time to upgrade, whether it's due to a problem or just an obsolete system, traditional IT managers don't have the requisite skills to manage the changes . I think thats why a lot of people in senior IT roles these days aren't so traditionally IT focused - for example, I've got a background in Human Resource Management!! But I know how ICT fits into a business, and I can manage the resources, put processes in place, and have a pretty good overview on developing IT strategy to support the business . I've never built a PC in my life!! I think the trick is knowing all you can about IT, but also clearly knowing your limits!	nofam (9009)
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