For the sake of Fred (and Ron) ...
No, the corporate security policy does not specifically forbid, warn, direct
or condone the use of Instant Messaging. And the corporate Internet
acceptable usage policy is generally speaking, an outgrowth of a generic
workplace harrassment policy. Hence, if you are not stalking someone via
Instant Messaging, the general feeling is that it must be OK.
However, there are three points that I continue to make although I generally
feel like a voice in the wilderness:
a) as was said below, the general user community feels they are making
private conversations that no one will overhear, and hence say embarassing,
incriminating and confidential and potentially legally litigatable things
over IM. I have seen on more than one occasion someone send a password
through MSN Chat thinking it would be "OK."
b) The general user community tends to feel that access to a system requires
use of that system. Hence, they try to connect to their family members, long
lost girl/boy friends, childhood companions. (and their managers query me,
'what happened to productivity?')
c) As a complementary feature to b), they now hold an EXPECTATION that the
services (which I do not control) must be available for them or it is a
minor disaster! ("I can't do my job!").
These are the reasons I am willing to block and forbid access to these
services and ammend usage/security policies to match the reality of life.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: Ron DuFresne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wed, January 24, 2001 9:29 PM
To: Dan McGinn-Combs
Cc: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: RE: Blocking AOL Messenger
But, you avoided the part of the question Fred asked about the security
policy or AUP, do they address such services in the work enviroment?
Thanks,
Ron Dufresne
On Wed, 24 Jan 2001, Dan McGinn-Combs wrote:
> I am also interested in blocking this kind of access. The primary security
> reason is that people tend to view this as a secure form of private
> communication between two people. As a result they tend to share
> confidential information that should not be transmitted over a clear
channel
> using a non-company resources and servers. People just don't think about
> what they are doing.
>
> Surf Control has some wonderful capability to stop connections in their
> tracks, but I'm not sure even it can pick an AOL messenger message out of
> the soup on port 80.
>
> Dan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Frederick M Avolio [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wed, January 24, 2001 3:50 PM
> To: Andrew Tseng; '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
> Subject: Re: Blocking AOL Messenger
>
>
> I sometimes teach classes, so I am interested in knowing why you are
> blocking it. What are you concerned about? Also, does the corporate
> security policy or acceptable use policy address it?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Fred
>
> At 02:45 PM 1/24/01 -0500, Andrew Tseng wrote:
> >Hi:
> > My company uses Checkpoint FW-1 4.0 running in a NT 4.0 box. Is
> > there any way to block users using AOL messenger ? I blocked AOL
> > messenger default port:5190 but it swithed to other ports such as 53, 23
> > or 25 which have to be opened. Also, connections of AOL logon host
> > "login.oscar.aol.com" and AOL Netblock "64.12.149.0", "152.163.180.0"
> > are disallowed. However, I still see users happy using AOL messenger
> > which really discourage me. Could anyone give me some ideas how to block
> > AOL Msgr? Should I block AOL Msgr by port or address basis or I have to
> > buy third-party SW like WebSense or SurfControl? Any comments will be
> > appreciated.
> >
> >
> >Andrew Tseng
> >
> >Ikegami Electronics USA
> >37 Brook Ave
> >Maywood, NJ07607
> >
> >-
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>
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