Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

What To Do If Linux Sneaks Onto Your Network

Posted by timothy on from the what-to-do-if-kidnapped-by-lucy-liu dept.

BrentN writes: "Network World is running an article on how IT managers should deal with Linux "sneaking in" to their networks, or more precisely, being surreptitiously installed on workstations on their network. Opinions of the IT managers they interview range from 'Reformat the hard drive and fire the person who installed that renegade operating system' to 'Don't ask, don't tell.' The article's author (rightly) points out that this is probably an unstoppable phenomenon."

3 of 334 comments (clear)

  1. Just like company email servers... by Masem · · Score: 5
    IMO, if the company has provided you with the computer, it's *their* property to do with as they please, just as the courts have ruled on the monitoring of company email. If you install Linux without checking with the IT departments first, then you deserve whatever punishment the company deems as a penalty for abusing company equipment.

    That said, there's no reason to actually take steps to see if Linux can be installed on a box. Write your IT department or supervisior, explain what benefits you *and* the company will get from installing Linux on that one machine. Make sure you explain you'll be completely responsible for that box from technical support to making sure it works with any priopritary protocols on the current network to making sure that it's secure. The latter point is probably most important; your job will be riding on the security of that box, so *you* need to be willing to take the risk and responsibilty to lock it down to the best of your ability. (This brings up the point how much more secure a well-maintained linux box is even compared to a expert NT person -- but you need to define how secure is secure.)

    If they don't agree, then there's probably no reason to stay at that company, if they don't understand why different people need different tools to work. Particually if they are in the IT business.

    --
    "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
    "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
  2. It's not that we hate Linux... by jht · · Score: 5

    I'm speaking here with my IT manager hat on, not my Linux geek hat in order to provide a little perspective. We don't hate Linux - in fact, probably the majority of us have a favorable opinion of Linux, too. Some of us even use it in our home/hobby lives, like I do (and have been since '94).

    The problem we have is with unauthorized anything on our networks, not just Linux. You see, planning and running the corporate network is what we're paid to do. In most structured environments, nothing gets installed without IT's thumbs-up. Period. The business (and our jobs) depends on the network's being as stable and predictable as possible, and even though Linux is wonderful stuff, workers are required to use what the company provides because we know it. It's not just Linux that can get a worker fired at my shop. It's any software that didn't come in through our department's OK. And all those cute little .exe files that people e-mail to each other? We block them at the SMTP gateway. Yes, we're pains in the ass about it, but we have a stable network with very little downtime - and when the latest .VBS virus goes sweeping the Net we're safely locked away with no downtime. On the other hand, we don't filter or monitor e-mail content or web sites. We don't care about speech at my company (which a lot of companies restrict), just reliability and safety.

    That's an important distinction. Some IT folks just reflexively hate that which they do not know. That's the wrong way to go about their job, but it covers the butt well. My attitude (and our policies are derived from it) is that the company provides the PC, so we get to decide what it runs, based on what you need to do your work. You don't get to decide unilaterally what runs on it - we do.

    However, we're not entirely closed off to running "other" things or operating systems. If someone came to us and had a reason they needed Linux to do their job instead of NT, I'd test to make sure it didn't interfere with anything else on the LAN (like a misconfigured Samba could), and they'd get their Linux after we tested it. But the important point here is that we are flexible, provided you follow the "right way" of making sure your software is OK. When people do that, and give us the chance to test things, we approve things unless we find a specific technical reason not to.

    But if someday Linux became our standard desktop OS at my company, you know what? We'd fire people who used Windows without authorization. Wouldn't that be an interesting turnabout?

    - -Josh Turiel

    --
    -- Josh Turiel
    "2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
  3. Limerick by 575 · · Score: 5

    There once was a man from IT
    Linux sneak'd to his desktop PC
    The OS, not supported
    His boss so purported:
    "You're fired, we run FreeBSD!"