Can my boss see my mail and my instant messages?
Hi everyone. Leo Notenboom here
for AskLeo.com. Here's the question that I get quite often.
To be honest. "I sent a coworker an instant
message through an instant messaging app regarding our boss.
We were both in the same office at the time.
My boss was seen at my desk looking through my computer.
He has spyware installed on the system.
Can he retrieve my old message that I sent to my coworker?"
To put it bluntly, Absa-freakin-lootley.
And I say that because just in what you've described here, there are multiple ways he
could actually access your conversation history.
And in fact, even without the spyware, even if you weren't looking at your
machine, there are still ways that your IT Department, your boss,
the company you work for, can always see what you're doing.
So "At your computer."
This one, I hope, seems obvious.
But if your boss is standing at your computer and your computer is not locked,
then by definition, he can bring up any window.
He can scroll back through your conversation history.
He can see what you're doing.
This actually goes back to one of my mantras.
If it's not physically secure, it's not secure.
If your boss or anybody can walk up
to your computer and physically access it, it's not secure.
And they can do pretty much anything they want to.
The more important point of this little conversation we're having is simply this.
They can monitor what you're doing remotely.
It's their equipment. Not just the computer on which they could
install spyware, but it's their network that you're using
and they can monitor the traffic across their network.
In fact, even Https connections in this kind of scenario aren't necessarily as
secure as you might think. It is possible for, in a corporate or complex situation
like this, for an intermediary who has provided your computer or has provided
the software on your computer to set up what we might call a man in the middle
attack where they can intercept your Https communications, decrypt them,
look at them, and then reencrypt them and send them on.
It's critical to understand when you are using somebody else's
computer, when you are using somebody else's network,
particularly in the workplace in most places, not only do they have
the ability to monitor what you're doing, they have the right it's their equipment.
They set the rules.
And the rules may very well include keeping an eye on what you're up to.
So if you're doing something sensitive, if you're doing something that you don't
want your boss to see, don't do it on their equipment.
Don't use their network.
Do it on your own equipment, on your own time, on your own network somehow.
But the bottom line is that, yes,
your boss can see pretty much everything you're doing.
Does he? That I can't answer.
In fact, I suspect it's relatively rare
unless he has reason to suspect you're up to something.
But could he? Again Absa-freakin-lootley.
For updates? For comments?
For related links and more. Visit
askleo.com/2222. I'm Leo Notenboom
and this is askleo.com thanks for watching.