Torrenting at Work

I know when I used to do IT for a law firm a few years ago, having any form of pirated material was a sackable offence as torrents could bring viruses into the network and mess everything up.
On another note at my mates place, he was in a similar situation and because it was the Area Managers laptop he was told by his own manager to keep it on the low but let the Area Manager know that’s why his laptop went **** up. He was also told to image the Area Managers laptop with torrents, adult material etc and to store it at home for ”safety reasons”
 
IMO:

Serious chat with employe, explaining mavity of what she has done. Basically a verbal warning since there is no official office policy but what she was doing was obviously wrong.

Immediate instigation of a ban on torrent programs unless approved and for business use.
 
Block the ports on the firewall, users can't be trusted to do whats right for the company.

Amazed any company has these ports open!
 
Just block the ports off - problem solved.

I certainly wouldn't ignore it - if she was indeed downloading illegal stuff it could have serious implications for your company.
 
Well i suppose it would be to report it to someone more senior but i like an easy life, and i dont want to cause what could potentialy be loads of crap for myself because i went higher up the food chain than her. She has the chance to cause a lot of probelms, hell, shes one of the three bosses who decides on redundancies, and weve had 3 rounds of them just last year.
 
I'll have words with the IT consultants then and get the ports blocked as that seems to be the consensus and have the least implications for stuff getting back to me.
 
They should be out the door instantly.

Though as IT Manager you've got a fair bit to answer for:
  • Why did the corporate firewall allow the connection on those ports?
  • Why did the client software on her PC allow that application internet access?
  • Why did the internet filtering system allow her to a) Browse to and download the torrent App and b) Browse to and download the torrent files? (Though I guess she could have download the .MSI and torrent files at home and brought them in on a USB memory stick)
  • Why was she free to install whatever the hell she wanted on that PC?
 
As i explained i'm not an IT Manager as you probably understand it. Im simply the guy who knows how to switch the machines on and off, and if they break its my job to fix them. Anything i cant do or need help with gets handed over to our IT consultants.

Thats where my responibilites lie. I'm just a 3D Visualiser who knows his way a little bit anyway round computers.
 
On a more serious note, if you don't want to be completely forthright, why not first ask your boss what action he/she recommends if hypothetically someone is found to be downloading illegal content.
 
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Jock said:
Well i suppose it would be to report it to someone more senior but i like an easy life, and i dont want to cause what could potentialy be loads of crap for myself because i went higher up the food chain than her. She has the chance to cause a lot of probelms, hell, shes one of the three bosses who decides on redundancies, and weve had 3 rounds of them just last year.
Click to expand...

And if you leave it and do not full fill your job you will be in that office with her. The company can get sued or worse if she is doing copyright stuff.

decide and take the risk either way.
 
If theres no reason to use BT for downloading work 'stuff', then in your capacity Id just block the ports across the network. She will then one day find it doesnt work and that will be the end of that without needing to take any more direct action then it seems you want to do...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
If she's a secretary and also a director and you 'also' do the company IT, I'm guessing it's a small company, just let it lie.
 
Our office is fairly small, about 12 people with another 2 offices with about the same number.

The fact shes a secretary and a Director is more to do with my companies crazy logic than anything else.
 
You didn't notice she was running a torrent client?

Maybe she isn't aware it's running, but then maybe she is. A simple "do you know you're downloading illegally?" will get her attention.

Clearly she has some IT knowledge if she has the sense to download the .torrent file, and configure ports for the application.
 
She could have signed up with one of those dodgy "legal" downloading sites - that are just portals to torrents - and not be aware what shes doing is illegal at all...

And I'm always suprised just how many people genuinely don't realise its wrong :S
 
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