monitoring internet use at work

[rja211077]

The IT people at my company always claim they are able to monitor our internet use but I'm not convinced and think they are bluffing. I work in a small satellite office (6 people) we have a domain/file server and a Proxy/Exchange server running Windows NT and MS BackOffice Server with Proxy. All internet files seem to get stored in a folder on the proxy server's hard drive called urlcache but there appears to be no way to find out WHO accessed the file. Our internet access is not limited - i.e. we can call up any page we want (there's no filter) though obviously a lot of things would be against company policy. How DO companies monitor user's internet use -not just pages accessed but length of time spent on each? Is there specialist software or is it somehow built in to the setup I describe above? NB I don't access dodgy material, I just spend more time on the web than my company would probably like!

[rekstout]

It is remarkably edsy to monitor an individuals Internet usage to a remarkable level of detail - up to and including any data submitted (such as filling in an online form) using readily available commercial software which often comes free with Proxy server or Firewall software. Whether or not they actually check the logs that are generated is a different matter.

[moonacre]

If your company has even a basic firewall then the logs will probably list every site visited together with which user (login) and access time. If they're running certain types of proxy then all content will also be stored. If they are using MS Exchange or similar then they have all your emails, inbound and outbound. There are several commercial utilities which give an exhaustive analysis of all online usage by user.

[lisaj]

As a freelance networking consultant who frequently help companies analyse their net usage and security systems, I can tell you that the company you work for have the ability to log every single byte going in and out of their network, whether it be web, email or any other form of traffic. What they decide to block is entirely up to them, but they'd be stupid if, in today's internet society, they didn't keep at least 12 months worth of full data logs that could be used to both identify abuse from outside but inside also. You can guarantee that unless you're a networking expert who can successfully fool other networking experts, anything you do that's illegal or inappropriate in the context of your company can be traced back to you personally, and can result in your instant dismissal.

[Prabhdeep]

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