Sunbelt Viper Enterprise

[Dartful Dodger]

We have a new antivirus program Sunbelt Viper Enterprise.  They installed it today and it started a system scan at noon.  It’s scheduled to scan everyday at noon.  I tried to pause the scan and reschedule it for midnight, but it says I don’t have permission to make those changes.  Does any of you tech guys know what this program is and who has permission and how much permission do they have.  Having limited access to software on my machine makes me very paranoid.

The tech gal who installed it is very sick.  She was coughing and hacking on my computer during the install so I don’t want her to come over her and mess with it anymore.



  ...and yes, I see the irony of her spreading a virus by installing an antivirus program.

[ahofle]

They do that at my workplace as well.  Most enterprise anti-virus programs have some sort of centralized 'console' that allows IT to remotely administer everyone's machines.  Assuming you are using some flavor of Windows, typically domain administrators have this privilege.  If you go to the 'Local Users and Groups' and check out your Administrator group, there is most likely some domain administrator in there.  If you are also an administrator to your machine, you can remove the domain admin from that group, but they will most likely be able to tell (updates to your machine will then fail).

[lanman31337]

Should have used Cheeseburger Antipasta antivirus.

Have you talked to the IT department about it?

You shouldn't worry about what they install on your work computer.  As long as you keep your nose clean you'll be fine.  As an IT guy, there's reasons users don't have full access to everything on company computers.

[Dartful Dodger]

Our IT person asked me what programs I was running because she got a bunch of Malice ware warnings from my machine.  I was opening and closing Photoshop, After Effects and Flash, every time I would restart one of those programs I would get the usual “This program is attempting to blah blah blah….”, and I would hit ok/allow.

She knows every time this thing warns me, so I'm not sure what else she knows.

I don't care enough to do anything to block her. I've got a little bit of a premadana complex.  They'll never find anyone as good as me to work for as little as I do and besides this website I don't screw around too much.

I just hate not having control over anything on my machine.  It's been doing the disk scan every day at noon which slows everything on my computer down, but like I said she's sick so I don't want her near me or my computer.

[saint]

Go burn a linux disc and set the administrator password to blank on your machine.

Next time the IT guy logs in, and punches in the admin password, Windows will automatically reset it to what he typed in without notification.

Only way you'll get caught is if he types something in that he -knows- was wrong, or he presses enter before typing anything. 

Done this several times so people could install wireless network drivers on their work laptops and screw around on the internet from home.   

In my organization, if you do that and get caught, you get fired.

[saint]

(But the scan in the middle of the day is doofy. If your workflow is being interrupted they're doing something wrong. IT should enable users to get the most out of their computer investment, not deliberately get in the way. I'm the network mangler at my workplace and I bend over backwards to make sure we don't do that...)

[Ed_McCarron]

but like I said she's sick so I don't want her near me or my computer.

Well, they did install antivirus...

[ahofle]

(But the scan in the middle of the day is doofy. If your workflow is being interrupted they're doing something wrong. IT should enable users to get the most out of their computer investment, not deliberately get in the way. I'm the network mangler at my workplace and I bend over backwards to make sure we don't do that...)

I wish you worked here then saint.  We have the same problems as Dartful and I'm afraid it comes down to the security administrators not having a clue about virus scan settings.  For example, here they have it set to scan ALL files on read and write, in addition to the ridiculous full system scans at various points in the day that completely bog down everything.  I then end up getting the brunt of our users' "performance" complaints saying our software is running slowly (the average user just assumes the program they are currently using is the problem).  I then have to waste my time documenting that it is in fact the virus scanner causing the problems.     

[shmokes]

You shouldn't worry about what they install on your work computer.  As long as you keep your nose clean you'll be fine. 

That's absurd.  You absolutely should worry about what the LAN people install on your computer.  The majority of IT people admit to spying on empoyee's work/files/email.  When I was a network admin, I bent over backwards to allow my users to do as much as possible without compromising security too much, or making my life too much more difficult.  The guy who replaced me is a stereotypical IT control freak who goes so far as to rearrange the icons on your peoples' desktops when he sits down to do anything on their computer. 

Too many IT people see the world in black and white.  They think that the more control they have, the better for business.  But they don't understand how much they unnecessarily make peoples' jobs unpleasant, which has a direct negative impact on the company's bottom line.  Job satisfaction is important, and trying to make sure that productivity sits at 100% all the time is a surefire way to make sure that turnover rate approaches that number.

The art of good network administration is knowing where to draw the line in the shades of gray between black and white.  The workers and the administration miss me at my old job.

[HaRuMaN]

That's absurd.  You absolutely should worry about what the LAN people install on your computer.

No, you shouldn't.  You have to remember that this is a work computer, owned by your company.  They can do whatever they want with it, it belongs to them, not you.  People should just use common sense and not do things at work that have the potential to get them fired.

[shmokes]

They also own the toilets in the bathrooms.  Perhaps you shouldn't be concerned if they install cameras.   

This is exactly the kind of absurd black and white thinking I'm talking about.  The importance of an individual's privacy doesn't disappear just because he/she walked onto company property.  And just because you have the legal right to do something doesn't make it right.  I know that the company can read any email you send through their servers, or any file you store on their hard drives.  That doesn't make it right.  As a network admin, on a couple of occasions I had supervisor's ask me to give them access to a person's email and one wanted me to set up PC Anywhere so that she could shadow an employee without the employee knowing it.  On every occasion I told them that I could do it, but that I wouldn't without the director's approval.  In every case the supervisor let it drop rather than going to the director.

I'm not saying that there is no situation in which a company could/should monitor employees like this.  But it should be a retroactive, case-by-case situation.  Proactively spying on employees in a fishing expedition for inappropriate behavior is ---smurfy---.  It kills moral, costs the company money.  And, frankly, it's dehumanizing.  It shows that the company does not care about its employees as people.  They are just resources to be used up for the fastest possible short-term gain.

[Ed_McCarron]

They also own the toilets in the bathrooms.

You should know better.

In a bathroom, you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

On a company owned PC?  Not so much.

Then again, I think towns should install surveillance cameras on all street corners.

[danny_galaga]

They also own the toilets in the bathrooms.

You should know better.

In a bathroom, you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

On a company owned PC?  Not so much.

Then again, I think towns should install surveillance cameras on all street corners.

move to london 

[Ed_McCarron]

They also own the toilets in the bathrooms.

You should know better.

In a bathroom, you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

On a company owned PC?  Not so much.

Then again, I think towns should install surveillance cameras on all street corners.

move to london 

Not sure if they help any there... Barry still seems to manage to get in trouble.

[mccoy178]

They also own the toilets in the bathrooms.  Perhaps you shouldn't be concerned if they install cameras.   

This is exactly the kind of absurd black and white thinking I'm talking about.  The importance of an individual's privacy doesn't disappear just because he/she walked onto company property.  And just because you have the legal right to do something doesn't make it right.  I know that the company can read any email you send through their servers, or any file you store on their hard drives.  That doesn't make it right.  As a network admin, on a couple of occasions I had supervisor's ask me to give them access to a person's email and one wanted me to set up PC Anywhere so that she could shadow an employee without the employee knowing it.  On every occasion I told them that I could do it, but that I wouldn't without the director's approval.  In every case the supervisor let it drop rather than going to the director.

I'm not saying that there is no situation in which a company could/should monitor employees like this.  But it should be a retroactive, case-by-case situation.  Proactively spying on employees in a fishing expedition for inappropriate behavior is ---smurfy---.  It kills moral, costs the company money.  And, frankly, it's dehumanizing.  It shows that the company does not care about its employees as people.  They are just resources to be used up for the fastest possible short-term gain.

I suppose it would be too republican of you to go buy your own laptop if you didn't like the companies policies?  Would a company car with a gps locater be just as wrong in your opinion?

[shmokes]

You should know better.

In a bathroom, you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

A#1, we're not talking about whether or not the government needs to get a warrant, so I don't see how that even applies.  B#2, the definition of "reasonable expectation of privacy" is defined by society -- it's a fluid term; what I am saying is that it is reasonable for an employee to expect an employer to treat him with dignity and respect. 

I suppose it would be too republican of you to go buy your own laptop if you didn't like the companies policies? 

LMAO . . . you're unstable.

[mccoy178]

I suppose it would be too republican of you to go buy your own laptop if you didn't like the companies policies? 

LMAO . . . you're unstable.

Way to answer the question.

[shmokes]

Oh . . . sorry.  My bad . . .

I suppose it would be too republican of you to go buy your own laptop if you didn't like the companies policies? 

You're a ---smurfing--- idiot.  Also, wrong forum.

Would a company car with a gps locater be just as wrong in your opinion?

No.

[saint]

 

[HaRuMaN]

 

[mccoy178]

I hope I didn't do anything to get this flamed up.  My wording was a jab, but a valid point none the less.

EDIT:  I am using my personal laptop for my personal business and the one the school provided for its intended use.

[Dartful Dodger]

I think saint means this is becoming a political thread on privacy.

Privacy is one of my concerns, but this software in general is my main concern.

We've had issues with idiots installing programs that would interfere with work programs and we even had one guy that replied to an email scam which resulted in multiple calls from Nigeria to our office.  So a few months ago the company started a policy where only IT can install programs, which I don't mind and even encourage years ago (before we even had an IT person)when Limeware was on every computer and it would take me an hour to download files from a client’s server. 

What I mind is I've worked here for almost a decade and now they've decided to install an antivirus program that I have never heard of or have any control over.

[Zero_Hour]

Honestly, the simplest solution seems to be the one that isn't garnering much attention.

You need to explain to the head of IT (Probably through your immediate supervisor if you have one), that scans at noon are killing your PC's performance, and making a negative impact on your productivity. Seems to me that if the scans ran at end of day, or prior to the start of work hours, your primary issue would be taken care of. It's not particularly difficult for even a modestly competent shop to make that happen via Wake on Lan, and a few scripts. Working in IT for years, I've encountered control freaks, inept admins, and genuinely helpful people - I try to be a member of the last group. If the anti virus system is managed via a server console, they should be able to remedy the problem without even returning to your desk.

I generally try to enable my users the ability to have as much flexibility with their systems as I can. Messing with anti virus software is one place where I keep their hands off - for numerous reasons. Running a full scan at noontime is just a bad plan, and should be pointed out as such to the powers that be.   

[Dartful Dodger]

Done, she was very considerate about it.  She didn't set it up to scan at noon, that's just a default setting.

My paranoia got the best of me again.

Still bothered by me not having access, but I guess I'd rather have my access block than losing months of work because others have access.