Are all .gov sites legit?

[djheater]

I have an uneasy feeling about letting users access any .gov site in the world.

Anybody care to link (or PM) specific example of why this would be a bad idea?

The access list applies to employess in a retail environment, who shoudl be working and not goofing off on the internet like we do all day.

 

[bella ragazza]

Well I would hope that all .gov sites are legit, how would you be able to get one anyway?

 

[yankeesfan]

I think it'll be all right.

edit: but then again, NASA has some interesting stuff on their site.

 

[EKKC]

Yes its legit nobody can get .gov unless its a real US based federal, state, local or municipal Government agency
but they are also the most hacked ones.

However if it's SOMESITE.GOV.SK or .GOV.WS or if there are any suffix behind .GOV be careful.

 

[randay]

Um, I can get all the .gov I want!

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: djheater
I have an uneasy feeling about letting users access any .gov site in the world.

Aren't .gov sites just US government sites? Not other governments.

 

[randay]

I have a few quesitons for you djheater.

1. is it your responsibility to control what sites the users can hit?

2. are you afraid of them browsing .gov sites?

3. do you have access to their dns server?

4. ever hear of a host file?

 

[imported_Baloo]

Do it, block .gov, and then start job hunting. There are numerous legit reasons for business to access Government websites, even foreign governments. Block it, and you impede people's ability to do their jobs. There are plenty of more qualified under employed network admins around to take your place.

 

[2Xtreme21]

goatse.gov

 

[SonnyDaze]

Originally posted by: djheater
I have an uneasy feeling about letting users access any .gov site in the world.

Anybody care to link (or PM) specific example of why this would be a bad idea?

The access list applies to employess in a retail environment, who shoudl be working and not goofing off on the internet like we do all day.

I work for the federal government and we had our annual "Information Assurance" class today and this point was brought up by the instructors. There have been cases of .gov emails and websites being compromised and used for phishing scams (and the installation of keyloggers :Q ) for government credit cards. Mainly Citibank and BoA. Very interesting info though. And you bring a good point.....even the government is not safe in the cyber world.

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: Baloo
Do it, block .gov, and then start job hunting. There are numerous legit reasons for business to access Government websites, even foreign governments. Block it, and you impede people's ability to do their jobs. There are plenty of more qualified under employed network admins around to take your place.

Hey, there angry guy, back off.

I don't have the power to block or unblock anything becuase I'm not the Net Admin.

There are no legit reasons for these retail workers, whom you don't know anything about to access any sites while on the job except those specifically related to their jobs and explicitly allowed. There is not law requiring internet access to certain sites :roll:

You don't know anything about the environment.

There should be plenty of more qualified Net Admins because I'm NOT one.

 

[jhayx7]

Originally posted by: djheater
I have an uneasy feeling about letting users access any .gov site in the world.

Anybody care to link (or PM) specific example of why this would be a bad idea?

The access list applies to employess in a retail environment, who shoudl be working and not goofing off on the internet like we do all day.

First rule of thumb when setting up a firewall. Block the entire asian/pacific network.

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: Baloo
Do it, block .gov, and then start job hunting. There are numerous legit reasons for business to access Government websites, even foreign governments. Block it, and you impede people's ability to do their jobs. There are plenty of more qualified under employed network admins around to take your place.

Geez dude, random attack on the net much?

 

[ultimatebob]

Let me guess... you're an IT guy for one of those jackass companies that restrict all personal web browsing on "company time"?

You guys suck! I'd never work for a company like that.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: Baloo
Do it, block .gov, and then start job hunting. There are numerous legit reasons for business to access Government websites, even foreign governments. Block it, and you impede people's ability to do their jobs. There are plenty of more qualified under employed network admins around to take your place.

You know what they say about assuming, except this time it's only you.

 

[Pheran]

Originally posted by: djheater
There are no legit reasons for these retail workers, whom you don't know anything about to access any sites while on the job except those specifically related to their jobs and explicitly allowed. There is not law requiring internet access to certain sites :roll:

I'm not sure I buy this. So the employees never need to obtain a W-4 Form to adjust their tax withholding? Or obtain information about FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act)? There are plenty of reasons to access .gov sites associated with nearly any job position.

PS: I'm assuming the company is in the US.

 

[Danman]

Uhh...I used to run a .gov network for the Military. So I'm not sure where you are getting this information that .gov networks are scams. I believe you have to be part of a military group to get a military domain like that (.gov or .mil).

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Pheran

Originally posted by: djheater
There are no legit reasons for these retail workers, whom you don't know anything about to access any sites while on the job except those specifically related to their jobs and explicitly allowed. There is not law requiring internet access to certain sites :roll:

I'm not sure I buy this. So the employees never need to obtain a W-4 Form to adjust their tax withholding? Or obtain information about FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act)? There are plenty of reasons to access .gov sites associated with nearly any job position.

PS: I'm assuming the company is in the US.

Those forms are available via the employer. The employee doesn't need access to the Internet to work.

 

[djheater]

The B&M retail portion of the company I work for is 2000+ stores. You walk in and order services and workers go about fulfilling those services.

For nationalizing the customer db and polling business the stores all have broadband. IE is configured through local policy and registry to be kiosk-like (I'm OS support for the stores, so Win Sys Admin).

Users have no rights, Auto-configuration is set to pick up a proxy file, and acces is limited to those specific sites.

As an admin for the OS, I don't like the idea of allowing these, VERY clever retail employees blanket access to anything, the net admin in charge of the proxy was being lazy and didn't want to figure out what they needed access to, so just put in .gov...
but it seems like that's fine.
She also had *.org in there, but I proved that wasn't such a good idea. One of the stores was e-mailing other stores clickable links (address bar is disabled), to girlfriends.org

 

[Hammer]

there's no reason to block a .gov site. if one did slip through the cracks, i don't think anyone could fault you for it.