[tor-talk] IBM says Block Tor

[Martijn Grooten]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 12:14:52AM -0400, grarpamp wrote:
> Some places allow tor for personal use for the explicit reason that
> they don't wish to be involved with policing employees freetime
> traffic on break, want to offer segregation, etc, in exactly the same
> way they don't regulate your cell phones.

Isn't the fact that mobile phones exist - and thus employees don't
depend on their employer's Internet connection during working hours - a
reason why companies blocking Tor isn't too big a deal?

I know companies that have a separate WiFi network in the building, not
connected to the corporate network, that employees can use to get a good
connection on their mobile devices (or personal laptops). They could use
Tor or VPNs too.

A company that blocks Tor because it's worried its employees are up to
no good should change the way it views its employees. A company overly
worried about employees using Tor to exfiltrate sensitive data should
consider blocking the whole of the Internet, or - more realisticly -
store sensitive data in a way that access is restricted to those that
really need it.

But a company that blocks Tor because, as IBM puts it, a lot of
malicious actors use Tor is making a sensible security decision.

Martijn