Work Wifi question.

[UteChief]

If I use the Tumblr app on my tablet or phone, can my employer see the content? There are some cool blogs that occasionally post NSFW items and I've decided not to use the app at work any longer but I was curious.

[DaveNull]

Do they have a way to tie your iPad to you the employee or are you just hanging out on the guest wifi with your work iPad?

Also, never underestimate how busy the guy is who handles the websense monitoring and how little he cares that you scrolled past a nipple while pooping.

[DaveNull]

Per this document it appears that Tumblr uses SSL all the time so unless they are doing a man in the middle attack on all SSL traffic (which I think is a huge dick move) you're likely fine.

[UteChief]

Yes, I have to log into the wifi. I'm sure they don't we have 4,000 employees but I'd rather not risk being the next person to post I need to find a job.

[DaveNull]

The other tip is that you ought to get to know your network engineers and security goons. They'll be more likely to just tip you off that they saw you doing something you shouldn't as opposed to turning you in to HR.

It's happened to me. It was nice to get a courtesy call to let me know that I had forgotten to turn off Bittorrent on my laptop instead of having a chat with the boss.

[UteChief]

What is a man in the middle attack?

[DaveNull]

It's when someone manages to get in between you and the server you're talking to in a way that they can see the traffic, even though you think it's encrypted. Criminals can do it, but so can companies with a Blue Coat appliance.

I think it's super unethical to do without telling your employees, even if you are whitelisting things like banks.

[UteChief]

Okay, thanks for the info!

[TribalElder]

Originally Posted by UteChief

If I use the Tumblr app on my tablet or phone, can my employer see the content? There are some cool blogs that occasionally post NSFW items and I've decided not to use the app at work any longer but I was curious.

Use your LTE on your phone for NSFW

Unless you are excessively cruising NSFW you probably don't even register with the websense guys.

[UteChief]

I'm not searching out NSFW. I'll see a nice car or cafe racer and link to a new blog and BAM. NSFW!

[Saulbadguy]

Originally Posted by DaveNull

Per this document it appears that Tumblr uses SSL all the time so unless they are doing a man in the middle attack on all SSL traffic (which I think is a huge dick move) you're likely fine.

Most next gen firewalls can do SSL inspection fairly easily. It's not a dick move.

[Ragged Robin]

you leave IP prints all over the internet with or without HTTPS, they would have to dig deep to find exactly WHAT (content) you were looking at but they can easily tell that you were using tumblr on the work ISP

[CanadianChief]

If they do some sort of Deep Packet Inspection then they can decrypt the traffic and inspect the content. They can block Tumblr based on the Application Signature built by the firewall provider specifically or just block all traffic that would fall into the same category as Tumblr.

[TribalElder]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Most next gen firewalls can do SSL inspection fairly easily. It's not a dick move.

Originally Posted by CanadianChief

If they do some sort of Deep Packet Inspection then they can decrypt the traffic and inspect the content. They can block Tumblr based on the Application Signature built by the firewall provider specifically or just block all traffic that would fall into the same category as Tumblr.

All of these things assume that the company is a trusted root certificate authority on your end device. Corporate owned devices are understandable because they can push the cert down to your managed device. For personal devices such as your own phone, don't install the certificate.