Calling all Virtualization Gurus.

[Magnum]

Might as well dual boot, from the same HDD then.

I was being polite in case a mod arrived and censured me

There are many dodgy scenarios where someone would want to spoof hardware

e.g. I was given a work computer to work at home. I lent/sold it to someone. My company now wants to do an audit, and I'm gonna get busted of specs don't match what was given to me

e.g. 2 . I'm selling hosting services...lets say crypto mining I've undersupplied on specs. I need to now prove to the customer that they are getting what they paid for

Those are valid. You left out hacking and botting as well. I dont like People sniffing around on my Private equipment and telling me what to do or what not to do. I am not on My employers Network. I do not VPN in and I have no access to the File servers even from a supplied PC on the network when I am at work. I fall under technical not Technology and R&D.

 

[GreGorGy]

You cannot contract outside of the law. The section in any contract that is not lawful becomes null and void.

I fully understand that. My point is this though: if you agree to something being in place on your computer, that does not mean you have contracted outside of the law. And since you are fully able to communicate without interception (just using another device) I am not so sure that the quoted legislation fully makes a company's behaviour illegal. If they were to act on intercepted private communications, that would be a different story. I seem to remember a case involving FNB employees who's phone calls or emails were used to dismiss.

 

[GreGorGy]

When your boss is allowed to spy on your emails and other communications

Yes - your boss is allowed to look at your emails, but only under certain conditions.

businesstech.co.za

In a breakdown of the Act, Tracy Robbins, associate at Baker McKenzie Johannesburg explained that section 2 of RICA contains a general prohibition against intentional interception of any communication.

However, there are two notable exceptions to this general prohibition, she said.

1. The employee consented to the interception; or
2. The interception was done for a general business purpose.

Section 2 prohibits the interception while section 5 states:

Interception of communication with consent of party to communication

5.(1) Any person, other than a law enforcement officer, may intercept any communication if one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent in writing to such interception, unless such communication is intercepted by such person for purposes of committing an offence.

It is murky, but if the employee consented to the monitoring, my feeling is S5 of RICA covers the legality of it.

 

[Hamish McPanji]

Those are valid. You left out hacking and botting as well. I dont like People sniffing around on my Private equipment and telling me what to do or what not to do. I am not on My employers Network. I do not VPN in and I have no access to the File servers even from a supplied PC on the network when I am at work. I fall under technical not Technology and R&D.

I left out a lot of scenarios. I was just giving example of some.

Your personal stuff is your personal stuff. Unless you are using it for company related work, it's none of their business. You can tell them you sold your computer, it's your brothers computer, you don't have one, or your dog ate it. I think a lot of the people here confused about it are wondering why you want to spoof the hardware.....that's entirely more dodgy than lying to your company

 

[Swa]

I fully understand that. My point is this though: if you agree to something being in place on your computer, that does not mean you have contracted outside of the law. And since you are fully able to communicate without interception (just using another device) I am not so sure that the quoted legislation fully makes a company's behaviour illegal. If they were to act on intercepted private communications, that would be a different story. I seem to remember a case involving FNB employees who's phone calls or emails were used to dismiss.

The issue is your employer can't make you consent to certain stuff, more so as a continued condition of employment if you are already employed. If they insist or give you hassle you can give them the finger and go to the CCMA. Your personal life and belongings would fall entirely out of the scope of your work.

There are some exceptions but your employer would have already thought of those beforehand and had you agree before you signed up.

 

[GreGorGy]

The issue is your employer can't make you consent to certain stuff, more so as a continued condition of employment if you are already employed.

Now this I can embrace. If new terms and conditions are introduced to an employment contract after the fact, for continued employment, that is more likely to be illegal.

However, if a successful and reasonable argument for operational requirements can be made, then illegality isn't necessarily implied. But I would like to believe that such an argument would fail those tests if it infringes on the employee's personal property, as is this case if you ask me.

 

[garyc]

Have seen this at various companies. There is a requirement that any computer that connects to the company network has certain software installed. Network usage is also typically covered by conditions of service.

The person may naturally decline to have the software installed on their own computer, but this means that it can not be used on the network.

 

[Messugga]

Have seen this at various companies. There is a requirement that any computer that connects to the company network has certain software installed. Network usage is also typically covered by conditions of service.

The person may naturally decline to have the software installed on their own computer, but this means that it can not be used on the network.

Read the thread. This is a personal computer that doesn't connect to any of OP's work infrastructure.

 

[Spacerat]

Name and shame this POS company

 

[Mystic Twilight]

The hardware must correspond. CPU and GPU. I have everything spoofed except the Hardware tracker.

It is a private PC. I don't work from home. The PC has nothing to do with the Company. They demand to have protection and it is covered in the company policies. they even track all social media accounts.

I don't get this part, if the pc is private and is not supplied by the company, then how would they know what specs you have for the pc, therefore how do they know which pc is the right pc if say you have 10 pc at home? That aside there are options that allow for cpu passthrough so that the vm actually has access to cpu information/specification pulled directly from the physical processor (which includes cpu specific instruction sets), and nvidia recently got gpu passthrough (though unsure of how much info it allows). The vm would then read the pass through information as the actual hardware (which it is to an extent).

If you are connecting via a vpn, nothing really stopping you from making that pc as a jump box.

Plot twist, someone managed to spoof the hardware and op is actually trying to catch them by posing the question as the victim.

 

[Swa]

Have seen this at various companies. There is a requirement that any computer that connects to the company network has certain software installed. Network usage is also typically covered by conditions of service.

The person may naturally decline to have the software installed on their own computer, but this means that it can not be used on the network.

That's usually software required to connect to the network and not spyware.

 

[Swa]

I don't get this part, if the pc is private and is not supplied by the company, then how would they know what specs you have for the pc, therefore how do they know which pc is the right pc if say you have 10 pc at home? That aside there are options that allow for cpu passthrough so that the vm actually has access to cpu information/specification pulled directly from the physical processor (which includes cpu specific instruction sets), and nvidia recently got gpu passthrough (though unsure of how much info it allows). The vm would then read the pass through information as the actual hardware (which it is to an extent).

If you are connecting via a vpn, nothing really stopping you from making that pc as a jump box.

Plot twist, someone managed to spoof the hardware and op is actually trying to catch them by posing the question as the victim.

Some hardware doesn't get reported like that. Like HDD and Grfx which can't be used directly by the VM and is quite generic or VM specific. You can also compare info on a day to day basis and since VM parameters can more easily change it can become quite obvious by just changing a setting.

Or it's the spouse.

 

[GreGorGy]

Or it's the spouse.

The thick plottens. Whether OP is legit in his questions or not and whether we find a solution or not, this is the theory with which I am now going - I like it.

 

[Hamster]

TIL that @Magnum is 70 years old

 

[ArmatageShanks]

Geez what a thread.

We have no prerequisites for working remotely, IT guy just used Anydesk to remote control my pc, set up the VPN and made a rdp shortcut on my desktop, job done.

We used to use just bare RDP with no added security so I ran it in a VM just incase.

 

[Genisys]

Geez what a thread.

We have no prerequisites for working remotely, IT guy just used Anydesk to remote control my pc, set up the VPN and made a rdp shortcut on my desktop, job done.

We used to use just bare RDP with no added security so I ran it in a VM just incase.

Oh, don't worry, they are already monitoring you. Easy enough to see when someone connects to a VPN or logs in with Active Directory. Some scripting and you can see how long someone was connected. Some software and its easy to see how someone is working and recording everything. But that is off topic for this discussion. That is work hardware so its not related to tracking a persons personal equipment.

 

[saor]

A whole bunch of fellow employees tried to resist but got told to resign. Id rather work the problem than Creating waves.

 

[ArmatageShanks]

Oh, don't worry, they are already monitoring you. Easy enough to see when someone connects to a VPN or logs in with Active Directory. Some scripting and you can see how long someone was connected. Some software and its easy to see how someone is working and recording everything. But that is off topic for this discussion. That is work hardware so its not related to tracking a persons personal equipment.

I don't mind that, my department reports on milestones and projects weekly with timesheets kept for reference, provided that these are reasonably met we can spend our time as we see fit.

 

[ArmatageShanks]

A whole bunch of fellow employees tried to resist but got told to resign. Id rather work the problem than Creating waves.

CCMA will have a field day.

 

[Magnum]

Well, We have gotten to the point where this cannot be evaded anymore. Thus far 2 low skilled employees have used the system and no one is the wiser.

In the Next couple of days some highly skilled truly educated Professionals will be certifying my Machine to make sure it is completely compliant with the Threats issued to me.

Hold thumbs everyone. Its looking good...