4 ms·

Never in all my jobs except for one, inappropriate one that I actually quit, would someone even dream of sitting at my unlocked computer without my permission a

Never in all my jobs except for one, inappropriate one that I actually quit, would someone even dream of sitting at my unlocked computer without my permission and acknowledgement and do stuff behind my back be it pranks or admin stuff. It's beyond taboo, it's something that might get you punched in the face around here.

InCityDreams 3y ago
Where i am, the offence is leaving your station open for others to mess with.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
I_Am_Nous 3y ago
I work at a SOC2 audited business and had a coworker who would routinely leave his PC unlocked. I would routinely set his desktop background to My Little Pony. He would routinely get grumpy at me and tell me not to touch his computer. I would routinely tell him I can't touch his computer if he locks it. It was a great way to train someone to follow SOC2 requirements.
- morsch 3y ago
  I always put salt in my coworkers unattended drinks for the same reasons. It's their fault, really.
  - I_Am_Nous 3y ago
    Can you please link the relevant security documentation which specifies all drinks should be tamper resistant?
    - benj111 3y ago
      I believe it's a sarcastic comment to make the point that just because something should be secure, doesn't mean you can go in a fiddle with it. Ianal but I don't think it's a valid defense to walk in to a bank, find an unlocked safe and take all the money to make a 'point'. Further, you're just normalising messing with other people's accounts which doesn't seem to be a good thing from a security pov.
      - I_Am_Nous 3y ago
        The reason I asked for the documentation is because even your bank example falls short - my coworkers and I are trained in and expected to follow SOC2 requirements. Taking the job in the first place means explicitly agreeing that you will follow the SOC2 requirements that we adopted because our customers said "we won't host data with you unless you are secure and audited." I can see an argument that I shouldn't be a "vigilante" about making sure people follow security practices they agreed to when taking the job, but we are all responsible for the security of the business. A repeat offender coworker who doesn't care about the security consequences of leaving their PC unlocked is a security risk which needs addressed. This isn't just a case of messing with a friend. Further, the PC is company property and subject to acceptable use policies. It's not "my computer" so I have no reasonable expectation that it is a sacred object other people won't mess with. Assuming others won't mess with your things is a terrible reason not to lock your door at night. Getting angry at a burglar for entering because you failed basic security misses the point of your failure. My repeat offender coworker got over his indignation that I touched his computer and then started doing what he was required to do the entire time and locked his computer every time he got up. I stopped touching his computer. He didn't get written up or fired for repeat security failures, and all was well.
  - callalex 3y ago
    An unattended beverage cannot cause harm to users that placed their trust in you.
jyunwai 3y ago
I've heard that the culture of some workplaces can even encourage this, as there is training value for developing good habits (though I haven't been at an organization like this myself). The idea is that users are trained and regularly reminded to always lock their computers when they step away for cybersecurity. So, if they forget, their computer is relatively harmlessly messed with (like with changing the desktop background). The consequences are then trivial, in contrast to potentially severe if a person left their computer unlocked with unvetted people coming in and out of the office during an event, or if they left their laptop unattended in a public area.
- sfn42 3y ago
  I work at a fairly large firm where we do this. If you leave your computer unlocked it won't be long before "you" announce in the company slack that you'll bring cake on Friday. Or something like that. Some people still leave their computers unlocked somewhat frequently, but overall I think it works.
  - jeffreygoesto 3y ago
    Similar here. We are really trained to lock when leaving the machine. One co-worker when pressed into coming with us for lunch did it blindly and after some seconds and finally a glance at the screen wondered why the lock screen did not come up. He accidentally had pressed shift-delete instead. On the folder he had worked on without committing the whole day. m(
    - pests 3y ago
      I have been locking my computers by habit since I was a child. To this day I will lock before walking away to even use the bathroom in a house alone. I even noticed this locking behavior a few weeks ago and chuckled at myself. That Windows+L motion as I get up is just so ingrained. If I'm not actively in front of my PC it is always locked.
- DylanSp 3y ago
  The team at my first tech job did this; I left my computer unlocked and stepped away, came back to find "I" had sent a joking message to the team saying that I forgot to lock my computer. It definitely trained that habit into me, I lock my desktop when stepping away even at home. I think it's probably a good technique, though it needs to be done with a bit of care to not seem too hostile or humiliating. Changing the desktop background seems like a good idea, since it's harmless, obvious to the user, easily fixed, and doesn't impede actual work.
solardev 3y ago
Just for context, we were quite young, and it was quite a small business. It was a mom and pop that started as a mail-order catalog, and we were hired to modernize their web presence. Now, by "web presence", it's true they had a website. And it was made with HTML. Lots and lots of HTML, in fact, as in thousands upon thousands of hand-edited, non-version-controlled files on disk that they'd manually curated over the years. We didn't exactly have a cybersecurity team or defined best practices. But we were treated well and worked together well. (Still friends with that dev a decade later!). It was also a really small town. We all hung out after work, went to the lake, climbing, whatever. Lived a few houses apart from each other (or sometimes in the same house, lol). We trusted each other. Had to. It's the kind of environment where relationships took precedence over rules. Looking back, it was definitely an uncommonly intimate situation, but it was awesome!
Two4 3y ago
I'm not sure you're a very fun coworker - also, using anger/taboo to cover for lax security seems a teeny bit toxic.
- MichaelRo 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - eastbound 3y ago
    Security policies should totally include “Employees who notice an open computer must nuke it. Immediately and for security. Then the owner be fired.” It’s actually a good idea, I’ll include the first part to our security policies.
  - benj111 3y ago
    To be consistent, surely the cleaning lady is perfectly within her rights to access your unlocked pc. Download all your files and sell them to the highest bidder. Just to make a point.
  - raincole 3y ago
    > In fact how the funk do I know YOU'RE not the undercover North Korean agent? If he's a undercover North Korean agent and you leave your computer unlocked for he to steal data, you'll likely be fired. So you should be thankful that he's not one in this particular hypothetical scenario.
    - MichaelRo 3y ago
      Let's consider that the colleague IS IN FACT a mole, a spy, an agent of a hostile entity be it a state or why not, a competitor. Iran or Russia couldn't care less about your enterprise business operations and customer relations software but SAP would be glad to silently eliminate a competitor. So said agent takes the opportunity to plant the malware on ANOTHER employee's computer, that's self-understood. He's not so stupid to risk incriminating himself. If all goes well, nobody will even notice where the infection began. If somehow it gets traced to it's root ... it's Johnny, the light hearted and jovial slightly overweight colleague that everyone likes and not Timmy the bleak and dull looking fellow that nobody quite notices outside mandatory interactions like the daily standup. Who would have thought that all that friendliness and charisma of Johnny was just a facade to his true evil intentions?
Lewton 3y ago
It is extremely unprofessional to leave your computer unlocked at work and I consider it a sign of gross incompetence
jrace 3y ago
You think punching someone in the face is ok, but changing there desktop background is going to far?
JohnFen 3y ago
> might get you punched in the face around here. Damn! I'm glad I don't work with people riding on the edge of being violent like that.

InCityDreams 3y ago

Where i am, the offence is leaving your station open for others to mess with.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

I_Am_Nous 3y ago

I work at a SOC2 audited business and had a coworker who would routinely leave his PC unlocked. I would routinely set his desktop background to My Little Pony. He would routinely get grumpy at me and tell me not to touch his computer. I would routinely tell him I can't touch his computer if he locks it. It was a great way to train someone to follow SOC2 requirements.

morsch 3y ago
I always put salt in my coworkers unattended drinks for the same reasons. It's their fault, really.
- I_Am_Nous 3y ago
  Can you please link the relevant security documentation which specifies all drinks should be tamper resistant?
  - benj111 3y ago
    I believe it's a sarcastic comment to make the point that just because something should be secure, doesn't mean you can go in a fiddle with it. Ianal but I don't think it's a valid defense to walk in to a bank, find an unlocked safe and take all the money to make a 'point'. Further, you're just normalising messing with other people's accounts which doesn't seem to be a good thing from a security pov.
    - I_Am_Nous 3y ago
      The reason I asked for the documentation is because even your bank example falls short - my coworkers and I are trained in and expected to follow SOC2 requirements. Taking the job in the first place means explicitly agreeing that you will follow the SOC2 requirements that we adopted because our customers said "we won't host data with you unless you are secure and audited." I can see an argument that I shouldn't be a "vigilante" about making sure people follow security practices they agreed to when taking the job, but we are all responsible for the security of the business. A repeat offender coworker who doesn't care about the security consequences of leaving their PC unlocked is a security risk which needs addressed. This isn't just a case of messing with a friend. Further, the PC is company property and subject to acceptable use policies. It's not "my computer" so I have no reasonable expectation that it is a sacred object other people won't mess with. Assuming others won't mess with your things is a terrible reason not to lock your door at night. Getting angry at a burglar for entering because you failed basic security misses the point of your failure. My repeat offender coworker got over his indignation that I touched his computer and then started doing what he was required to do the entire time and locked his computer every time he got up. I stopped touching his computer. He didn't get written up or fired for repeat security failures, and all was well.
- callalex 3y ago
  An unattended beverage cannot cause harm to users that placed their trust in you.

jyunwai 3y ago

I've heard that the culture of some workplaces can even encourage this, as there is training value for developing good habits (though I haven't been at an organization like this myself). The idea is that users are trained and regularly reminded to always lock their computers when they step away for cybersecurity. So, if they forget, their computer is relatively harmlessly messed with (like with changing the desktop background). The consequences are then trivial, in contrast to potentially severe if a person left their computer unlocked with unvetted people coming in and out of the office during an event, or if they left their laptop unattended in a public area.

sfn42 3y ago
I work at a fairly large firm where we do this. If you leave your computer unlocked it won't be long before "you" announce in the company slack that you'll bring cake on Friday. Or something like that. Some people still leave their computers unlocked somewhat frequently, but overall I think it works.
- jeffreygoesto 3y ago
  Similar here. We are really trained to lock when leaving the machine. One co-worker when pressed into coming with us for lunch did it blindly and after some seconds and finally a glance at the screen wondered why the lock screen did not come up. He accidentally had pressed shift-delete instead. On the folder he had worked on without committing the whole day. m(
  - pests 3y ago
    I have been locking my computers by habit since I was a child. To this day I will lock before walking away to even use the bathroom in a house alone. I even noticed this locking behavior a few weeks ago and chuckled at myself. That Windows+L motion as I get up is just so ingrained. If I'm not actively in front of my PC it is always locked.
DylanSp 3y ago
The team at my first tech job did this; I left my computer unlocked and stepped away, came back to find "I" had sent a joking message to the team saying that I forgot to lock my computer. It definitely trained that habit into me, I lock my desktop when stepping away even at home. I think it's probably a good technique, though it needs to be done with a bit of care to not seem too hostile or humiliating. Changing the desktop background seems like a good idea, since it's harmless, obvious to the user, easily fixed, and doesn't impede actual work.

solardev 3y ago

Just for context, we were quite young, and it was quite a small business. It was a mom and pop that started as a mail-order catalog, and we were hired to modernize their web presence. Now, by "web presence", it's true they had a website. And it was made with HTML. Lots and lots of HTML, in fact, as in thousands upon thousands of hand-edited, non-version-controlled files on disk that they'd manually curated over the years. We didn't exactly have a cybersecurity team or defined best practices. But we were treated well and worked together well. (Still friends with that dev a decade later!). It was also a really small town. We all hung out after work, went to the lake, climbing, whatever. Lived a few houses apart from each other (or sometimes in the same house, lol). We trusted each other. Had to. It's the kind of environment where relationships took precedence over rules. Looking back, it was definitely an uncommonly intimate situation, but it was awesome!

Two4 3y ago

I'm not sure you're a very fun coworker - also, using anger/taboo to cover for lax security seems a teeny bit toxic.

MichaelRo 3y ago
[flagged]
- eastbound 3y ago
  Security policies should totally include “Employees who notice an open computer must nuke it. Immediately and for security. Then the owner be fired.” It’s actually a good idea, I’ll include the first part to our security policies.
- benj111 3y ago
  To be consistent, surely the cleaning lady is perfectly within her rights to access your unlocked pc. Download all your files and sell them to the highest bidder. Just to make a point.
- raincole 3y ago
  > In fact how the funk do I know YOU'RE not the undercover North Korean agent? If he's a undercover North Korean agent and you leave your computer unlocked for he to steal data, you'll likely be fired. So you should be thankful that he's not one in this particular hypothetical scenario.
  - MichaelRo 3y ago
    Let's consider that the colleague IS IN FACT a mole, a spy, an agent of a hostile entity be it a state or why not, a competitor. Iran or Russia couldn't care less about your enterprise business operations and customer relations software but SAP would be glad to silently eliminate a competitor. So said agent takes the opportunity to plant the malware on ANOTHER employee's computer, that's self-understood. He's not so stupid to risk incriminating himself. If all goes well, nobody will even notice where the infection began. If somehow it gets traced to it's root ... it's Johnny, the light hearted and jovial slightly overweight colleague that everyone likes and not Timmy the bleak and dull looking fellow that nobody quite notices outside mandatory interactions like the daily standup. Who would have thought that all that friendliness and charisma of Johnny was just a facade to his true evil intentions?

Lewton 3y ago

It is extremely unprofessional to leave your computer unlocked at work and I consider it a sign of gross incompetence

jrace 3y ago

You think punching someone in the face is ok, but changing there desktop background is going to far?

JohnFen 3y ago

> might get you punched in the face around here. Damn! I'm glad I don't work with people riding on the edge of being violent like that.