Port 8888 is blocked!
(Technically speaking, every port except 80, 443 and maybe 25 is blocked.)
Meaning, from inside their network, I can’t connect to a server of mine outside their network running a service on port 8888.
In any case, this is unfortunate, because I’m trying to demo my software.
The IT guy tells me that it’s necessary to “lock down” the network. He doesn’t want anyone using unauthorized services running on high ports.
Of course, anyone can tell you that it’s trivial to circumvent this obstacle by tunneling to the unauthorized service over unblocked port 80 via a friendly server running somewhere outside their network (in someone’s basement, for example). Anyone can also tell you that it’s easier to hide access to an unauthorized service when it’s talking over port 80—it’s lost in the mix, isn’t it.
And if you’re concerned about data escaping (which–and let’s be honest–is somewhat more of a significant threat than surfing the damn ‘net), it’s worth noting that it’s easier and more secure to put the data (up to 8GB these days) on a USB stick and walk out the door than it is to send it over the network. Fuck! It’s easier to walk out the door with a laptop, even.
Not that I know anything about any of this, of course.
So what’s going on here?
Seriously, it’s like the medieval church trying to maintain control of its monopoly in the face of the invention of the printing press!
Ah, the joys of repression!
Image courtesy of topgold.
- Bandit
[...] NotAnMBA writes: “The IT guy tells me that it’s necessary to “lock down” the network. He doesn’t want anyone using unauthorized services running on high ports. [...]
I couldn’t agree more with this article. More and more large employers, and some small ones, have had a growing view of employees as assets.
One thing to take comfort in is that much like oppressive systems in history, people will not tolerate it for long.
I’ve had long conversations with fellow employees 20 years my senior (I’m 40) who are nearing retirement (and are glad about it). They tell first hand stories of the slow erosion of the relationship between employer and employee.
My own theory is that after mergers and fierce global competition, corporate leadership has grown further - physically, emotionally, and economically - from their rank and file flock.
It loosely reminds me of the French crown ignoring the powder keg that was brewing right under their noses in the early 1780’s.
Close a port here and there, throw in some over the top network and security monitoring. Put people in a state of mind where they feel like their job is in jeopardy if they take so much as a personal phone call.
All while the executives take home record setting bonuses and jet off to Cancun for a corporate retreat.
Let them eat cake.
When does the uprising against the corporate oppressor begin? Or has it already started with the growth of freelancing coupled with co-work?
Joe, it is my opinion that the best and the brightest are already heading to the door… and they don’t intend to return.
Thanks for the comment!
What is this moron, stuck in the 90s?
Port-blocking avoidance is, as you say trivial. Beyond trivial. Layer 7 analysis is what the grownups are doing.
Sorry that you have to deal with idiots like that.
Joe - the uprising has started! It’s called ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment). We were caged in the bowels of Corporate America - oppressed and being forced to adhere to stupid rules like Bandit describes. We said “ENOUGH” and created ROWE. We went underground and started a guerilla movement at the corporate headquarters of Best Buy. We got team after team, and leader after leader, to adopt this way of thinking: Each person can do whatever they want, whenever they want - as long as the work gets done. It broke them out of the shackles of the 1950s and productivity is up an average of 41% on ROWE teams. Now, it’s spreading across the country, and soon -across the world. We have a book - “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It” - coming out in 2 months. Once it gets in the hands of the masses, the uprising will be out of control. You in???? Find out more at http://www.caliandjody.com.
Bandit - we love you.
Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson
Creators of the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE)
Authors of the forthcoming book “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It”
No, sorry. Time got to call BS.
Was the IT guy who locked down the network an “Executive”? Was he acting under bad, dumb, Dilbertesque, top-down, MBA-tainted orders? Or was he just as stupid, and empowered to share that stupidity, just like would be if he were an independent contractor you asked to manage your coworking LAN?
I’m concerned that the implication of the post (and increasingly your tenor) is that corporate worklife makes people stupid and oppressive.
Trust me: those of us who are independents are perfectly able to be stupid and repressive in kind. Many of the worst old-school obstacles in our town are independents and contract predators, playing the golfing realtor set for funding and hogging all the resources and PR mindshare. They’re not employees, either, and they don’t run in corporate packs. They’re just independent powerful idiots, making their mess in the world.
So, please: just take a moment to hesitate. Sometimes life’s a little more complicated than we want to assume.
John/Cali, thanks for your comments! I’m in the mood for a little revolution…
Bill, thank you, as well. Life is always more complicated than any model I make or story I tell. And I’ve been told I have a nasty tendency to oversimplify in the interest of telling a good story, which exacerbates the effect.
There was a beautiful article I read in IEEE Spectrum or some such magazine way back when… The author suggested that, in any population of any size, there is a ratio (called phi I think) that defines the number of stupid people in the group. 100 Nobel Prize winners–when put in a group phi of them will be stupid. 100 IT guys–same thing. 100 golfers–same thing. I wish I could find that article. It was formative. Partly because it was wickedly funny and partly because it so accurately described our own prejudicial thought processes regarding the label “stupid”.
In any case, I’d say the IT guy was unimaginative but not oppressive–this was definitely a case of uninformed orders from on high.
However, we somehow addressed the problem and it somehow went away somehow and the demo was saved.
I just found out that thanks to your love, this post is now in the first page of results for searches on “port 8888″. Since my days playing MUDs, port 8888 has always been a special place for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.