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Hi all,
Long time no see. I need help from all you experts.
I am pretty sure one of the IT persons at my work is spying on my emails. I am 100% sure that it is NOT a company policy for the IT department to "monitor" my emails. I suspect that the person does it by setting up in Postini to c.c. every one of my emails, in and out, to his account clandestinely.
The question is how can I find out for sure?
I am using Outlook. Not sure which mail server we use at work.
Thanks in advance.
Since you NEVER type anything in an COMPANY email that you wouldn't mind being public - what's the problem;)
If I were sitting in your chair - I would go talk to my boss.
FWIW--You might have a legal case if the company has no policy or has not announced one if they do. However, I doubt you would come out well if you pursued this.
Speculation on my part...
Unless initiated by management, if you have been singled out, this could be a form of harassment. IMO, I would speak with your boss and ask that this be investigated by appropriate management, unknown to the person you suspect. If you try to "reverse" spy (somehow), you could be setting things in motion the wrong way.
I am certain that it's a personal vendetta against me (and perhaps others) rather than my company's directive for him to spy on me. This afternoon, I actually stumbled upon him spying on yet another co-worker's email. He doesn't know that I know yet b/c I didn't call him out right there and then. But I called on a co-worker while all this was going down just so that I'd have an eye-witness! For now, I don't want to say too much about how I stumbled upon it b/c for all I know, he could be a member here but I can assure you all that I did not "reverse spy" on him. For one, I don't know how. Suffice it to say that he's just got too cocky and careless and I just happened to stumble upon it. That email is pure regular business in nature. It is from one co-work to another co-work and the content definitely doesn't concern him or the IT dept what so ever.
I have been thinking long and hard about this ... is it going to hurt me if I go to the bosses? This guy has been there longer than I have been and the company rely pretty heavily on his works. Will I be branded as a trouble maker? You know, some bosses don't like anything that will "rock the boat", so to speak. The consequences for being a whistle blower! I don't know what to do. Anyone has similar experience? If you were my boss, what would you do if I come to you with this?
Things to consider:
Would you want to continue working at a company where this type of behavior was condoned or covered up?
Also, the company could be facing a large liability lawsuit if they have no policy on monitoring and allowed this to continue. Your boss could be in for some trouble if appropriate action is not taken. Of course, you have a better idea of the type of person your boss is than we do.
First thing I would do is put all of your evidence and any other pertinent material on paper... same with your co-worker.. adding as many details, dates and times as you can. Then if you decide to tell your boss (I would too, depending on circumstances of course) then you'll have the advantage of being well prepared.
After thinking more about this another thing you could do if you decide telling your boss is not an option is to (from work) send an email to your local FBI or law enforcement office asking for information on what to do if you suspect (or have proof) that your email is being intercepted and read by a third party.
That might be enough to scare that certain third party from reading any more of your emails.
Mmmm. Have been going back and forth on this. I think I am going to talk to my boss. I have talked to him about other issues w/ this IT guy before and he have been supportive of me. I'll see when tomorrow comes.
Considering the job climate at the moment, it would take more than this to get me to quit. As Steve already said, since work e-mail should not contain anything damning in the first place, it ought not to be that big a problem.
And never use your employer's computer for any purpose, or store data on it, that is not work related.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve R Jones
I may be completely off the mark but that can make your boss think of you as a complainer or troublemaker. I tried to take solutions, not problems, to my boss so I ignored most issues with other employees.Quote:
I have talked to him about other issues w/ this IT guy before and he have been supportive of me.
If this guy is snooping through falcon's e-mail, he is most likely snooping through other people's e-mail, probably including falcon's boss's e-mail. If he gets caught and claims falcon knew about it, falcon could be going down the road with the IT guy. Also, if IT guy is also passing on company confidential information to outside parties, falcon could also wind up on the wrong end of a lawsuit or criminal complaint if IT guy claims falcon knew about it. In my view, no job is worth the kind of trouble this sort of work environment can lead to.
Elaborating on JDC's post - since Falcon definitely now knows what this guy's doing - and another person can attest to Falcon knowing about it - I think it would behoove Falcon to let his boss know, before his boss finds out via other means and jumps to the conclusion that Falcon was party to the spying.;)
Falcon is not in an enviable position but lgbpop(where you keeping yourself) and jdc are making sense to me. All who know about this, and especially those known by Falcon and his "witness" should consider banning together and set up a meeting with the boss(assuming the same person is boss over all) just to put themselves in the clear. Be sure to document what takes place in the meeting. Use of a recorder would not be a bad idea.
Hope this comes out in your favor Falcon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jerryctx
Assuming the emails only contain Company info and not knowing Falcons position in said company (how sensitive the info is) it might be a good idea to let the boss know if they suspect the company info may be unnecessarily filtered by the IT guy (for what reason?)
Maybe I'm just being paranoid.
If your emails contain anything other than company info i.e. personal you are not going to get very far with complaining.
The problem is not that I use my work email for anything other than work related matters. The point is that he now has access to privilege information which is outside of his purview. Personnel, trade, financial, etc, info which he should not be privy to. It's a big deal, in my opinion. Imagine if he worked for the Pentagon and he were to spy on a General's emails!
Jerry, that's my concern also. On the other hand, I do know that this guy is not at all popular within the company b/c of his various antics. I am not sure how officials higher up feel about him ... he is a brown-noser!Quote:
I may be completely off the mark but that can make your boss think of you as a complainer or troublemaker.
jdc2000, lgbpop, buf and wonderingguy, you guys bring out the other concern that I have. Yes, what if he twists the whole thing around and set me up for some wrong doings! If he can steal my and others' emails, I am quite certain that he can plant evidence in my computer and mail systems to accuse me of something that I didn't do.
One possible alternative would be to send an e-mail informing company officers of the problem from an outside webmail account. A Hushmail account set up using their automated process does not collect any personal info and can be accessed from any web connected computer, so it cannot be traced back to the sender.
Hushmail, mmm, that's an option.
If you have proof this man is violating company policy you have a responsibility to notify management.
Otherwise, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. If you are wrong it could be fatal to your career and even open you to a law suit from the accused.
If you have previously complained about this person you would immediately come under suspicion as the (cowardly) source of an anonymous email.
If you are sure of your charges, tell the boss face to face.
Otherwise, you are playing with fire.
I spent ten years researching real and imagined security threats for a large organization. Often, this involved "suspicious" activity reported by a fellow employee. With few exceptions, it turned out to be a misunderstanding.
The only proof I have is eye-witness account. A co-worker and I both saw the guy opening up another person's email and reading it. Not sure this is strong enough or not. That's why at the beginning I asked for ways to find more evidence. How can I get proofs that he intercepts my emails?
If he has system admin privileges, he can pretty much do as he pleases and unless there is some type of logging for his activities, no one could prove anything...
This is getting tuffer....You're spying on him spying on you:eek:
You and the co-worker could exchange emails....
Hey <insert the IT Guys name here> - we know you are reading our mail.
If two people state they saw him opening another's email, that is sufficient proof for me.
However, my guess is that he is the company's monitor. Since a company can be held liable for employee activities, they have both the right and the responsibility to verify that their resources (computers, networks, ...) are only used for approved activities.
Most organizations use software to scan all email for certain words and phrases. In addition, reading (usually random) employee email is SOP at most larger organizations.
BTW, they do the same for web sites you visit.
Steve, no, we didn't spy on him. As I mentioned b4 I don't want to say too much on an open public forum right now but we saw the activities going down and the way we saw it was completely innocent and legitimate. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
Jerry, yes, it's a tough call. I am sure the company can monitor emails and other activities. But the questions are #1, by whom and #2, to what extent? I am one of the recipients of that particular email and so I know that it is 100% business related. Now, assuming that he was indeed told to monitor emails, but after he read the first paragraph, would it be sufficient enough for him to realized that it was a legitimate business email and that he should cease reading the rest of it? Kind of like the wire-tapping law. When the cops realize that the conversation is not related to the crime they are investigating, they must switch off and stop eavesdropping. I don't know. Also, I have spoken to my boss (he is very high up) and he told me that, yes, the company may choose to monitor emails but there is not any company directive right now for anyone to so. If there is one, he would know.
If you were able to view this activity on at least two occasions without any special effort, either he is an incompetent snoop or he has nothing to fear. My guess is the latter.
Not the same. The monitor is not looking for a specific activity. In any case there are no limits on what can be read.Quote:
When the cops realize that the conversation is not related to the crime they are investigating, they must switch off and stop eavesdropping.
Then it might be best to tell him the whole story. Good luck.Quote:
I have spoken to my boss
I finally spoke to my boss about the whole thing. Turns out that he has his own suspicion that the guy is spying on him also. Other people in the past have told him the same suspicion before. He is 99.9% sure that the guy is not asked to "monitor" anyone's emails. Now, because the 2 of us actually witnessed the activities, he said he would take it to the appropriate authority. We'll see.
Sounds like a happy ending to a bothersome situation. Gotta have some feeling for the guilty--now. Guess he is going to have a painful experience and ending and hope he learns from his wayward ways. Vindication may be yours shortly.