How do I secure myself?

[Grouchyoldguy]

I live at work....literally. I have the IT departments ok to plug into the LAN so that I may use the internet connection only. No passwords or username and thats fine with me. I've plugged in and connect no problem, but what do I need to do to keep others on the network from snooping around in my machine. I turned off guest accounts and password protected my account and the admin account. I turned off file and print sharing. Anything else??? Remote assistance or remote desktop??
Hey, while I gotcha here, can their packet sniffers and whatever else they have to monitor internet traffic tell them what is being sent and received over a "secure" P2P network (filetopia)?
Thanks for any and all help
Dave

 

[MiniDoom]

Downloading porn at work huh? Anyways sound ok no one can remote desktop to your computer unless they are in the admin group, use a complex password. It wouldn?t be had for the net admin to know your downloading porn I mean p2p from all the traffic going to port 6xxx or whatever it uses.

 

[Grouchyoldguy]

I suppose the 100+ megabyte files are a dead giveaway. Hey, I could be DL'ing TV shows . They can't really say much, just disconnect me since I'm not working or in the office. I live in a 35' tin can with wheels next to the office during the week.

 

[Kelemvor]

If you are using the companies network to do things that company forbids.. they sure can do something about it....

 

[Garion]

The problem is that there's a lot more to protecting your computer than simple login names and passwords. You have to worry about viruses, various attacks, etc. If I were you, I'd treat the company network as it was totally untrusted. I'd go and pick up a SOHO router and plug in behind it. Just make VERY sure to talk to your IT department to make sure that they won't have a problem with it. Otherwise, VERY bad things can happen - Ask Spidey07 how a $50 linksys can take down a whole data center sometime...

In general, the ability to sniff your traffic is very dependent how you connect to the Internet and how savvy your IT staff is. In general, assume that your traffic can be watched and don't do anything that will cause them TOO many problems. Also, keep in mind that P2P apps can HAMMER an Internet connection and others will barely be able to use it. NOT a good way to impress the boss! If you do use P2P, be sure to use the bandwidth control functiosn to limit it's traffic to a small portion of your company's Internet bandwidth.

- G

 

[Grouchyoldguy]

Thanks to all. I'll be adding a firewalled router and only DL'ing once in a while.

 

[sosobear]

Keep in mind, as long as you don't encrp your data, anyone can sniff on your gataway and catch your data!

 

[Night201]

How come no one has brought up legallity issues in P2P sharing on a company network?