Infuriating relatives - and the internet

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Anyone else have a problem with realtives without a clue asking for help? I expect the answer is yes!

My cousin gave me a call yesterday saying she wants to work from home, but the IT chappys at her employer told her there was no way with her pc in its current state, but wouldn't sort it. . . so i agreed to take a look.

It was insane! Occasionally, IE would open (different home page each time) with no toolbars, others times there were 8 toolbars.

Occasionally a bare IE window (no toolbars whatsoever) on a random, very dodgy website. These windows would not close normally, or via the task manager.

The numerous bits of malware had somehow disabled USB support (which was annoying, as i had a usb keyboard and card reader with the AV software on it)

Anyway, my point is, they obviously just blindly click everything that pops up. How do you educate them to not render their PC unusable?

I have installed all the relevant security software but i'm fairly sure it wont be long before i have to sort the machine out again. I had no choice but to format it, and if she is using it to work from home, that wont be a good option in the future!

 

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When you say 'work from home' - I presume you mean via a VPN?

If thats the case, and the company concerned hasn't got the requisite VPN security in place then they should never let an employee 'work from home' anyway.

There's no excuse now for any organisation that wants to put family or employee-friendly 'work from home' policies in place not to deploy the correct internal systems in palce that protect against malware, trojans, worms etc being brought in over a VPN connection. As well as the hugely expensive solutions out there from the likes of Juniper & Aventail that are designed to secure corporate LANs, most firewall vendors now offer SME sized boxes that protect against stuff being brought onto your network by baselining clients - whether they be 'regularly' connected network clients or coming in over a VPN. You can get solutions that allow you to baseline anybody wanting to connect to your LAN so that they are running the latest version of your corporate AV client, have a baseline level DAT/pattern file, are running corporate firewall software/policies and even then scan them so that they aren't infected with malware or spyware before allowing them on the network.

I do agree though that 'relative hell' is a nightmare. My brothers in law regularly need me to do something or other with their PCs - usually related to the fact that he insists on letting his kids 'play' on his 'work' PC and the less said about my mum's PC the better. She's still on dialup!

PS: That PC is ready for a format & reinstall anyway. I guarantee all you're doing is papering over the cracks.

 

Popup blocker and creating them a guest user account to logon with might reduce the havoc they can create

Lock em down on their own PC matey

 

Some people dont actually understand that going on the net and downloading files can harm their computer. Some people dont realise that deleting cookies etc before knocking the browser of is a good idea.

It is hard to educate people without getting mad you just have to try and be patient

 

Tell them not to install or click on anything...

then if they call you around again, cut the plug off with some garden shears...

that should do it !

 

That's where working for big companies comes into it sparks - its all about the SSL VPN for me!

I've been asked to write a feasibility study for implementing an SSL VPN where I work because we're spending a ridiculous amount on 3G cards per month. If we can get an SSL VPN in we'll be able to halve the potential cost of it by doing away with all the spurious 3G card 'essential' access people who just use it to check their damn email.

Incidentally, SSL VPNs are not outwith the price range of most SMEs either. I think CheckPoint do a small box that supports 5 concurrent users for about 600 quid - though I could be wrong, it might be SonicWall or Zyxel. Even Aventail & Juniper are expanding into the smaller market

My bad, it was Billion I was thinking of.

Billion S10

 

Cool - Does it do endpoint compliance or just act as a focal point for VPN connections?

 

Focal point for VPN connections over HTTP rather than using the VPN client. We had one of these at my last employer. It's pretty cool - you can set up profiles that allow users to do only what you want them to do. For example, we allowed our transcriptionists to "NetExtend" onto the network because they had "work PCs" set up at their homes. However, doctors wanted to be able to do stuff from their home PCs. Since we didn't have administrative control of their PCs, we obviously couldn't allow them to connect directly to the network, so we allowed them the ability to connect to a Terminal Server on the network, from which they could access all of the clinical systems apps.

 

Scare the bejesus out of them (and all that takes is to tell them the TRUTH!). If that doesn't work... hide their power cord. That'll take care of the problem.

 

Easy....Start charging a "call out" fee for anything security related. That way they either learn what you teach em' or you get rich.....win win

 

Why do the transcriptionists rate high enough that they get a 'work pc' at home and the doctors don't?

 

agree...works like a charm this one ...however there is secret option 3: they refuse both and ask someone else to wipe out the PC for them (someone who thinks they know what they're doin and they wont charge them and will only cause more problems later on)

 

Or you could install Linux for them, so they can use that to browse the web and (assuming they need it) keep windows for anything they might want to do off-line...

 

hehe, good suggestions.

I did think it odd that they were going to let her connect via her own PC. . . I just assumed that they dont have a clue!

Its odd though, my dad barely understands how to use his laptop, other than for reading forums etc and he never gets anything malicious on there, yet someone who apparently barely uses their machine, fills the damn thing up with it!

 

Not really, It depends where you go on the web. you could use your PC for a long time and not get any spy-ware because you visit sites that are trustworthy and know how to keep it from downloading with their pages. Then you could surf for 20 mins and your machine could be FULL of the stuff because of the quality of the sites you visit.

 

The transcriptionists MUST use the work PC. The docs want the ability to use any old PC they want. We'd *prefer* that they use a work PC, but they don't want that limitation.

 

So as long as they are paying the bills - nothing like "career assurance based on user stupidity or inane requirments"

Also they'll want the non-budget version" also...