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The latest rumor: All direct DB traffic from workstations will be banned shortly. Even for developers..
wtf.. really.. wtf..
The latest rumor: All direct DB traffic from workstations will
be banned shortly. Even for developers..
Sounds like a great way to make sure nobody gets any work done. Funny how often that is the end result of ideas by the security folks.
Devs will probably just clone the production DB into their own dev environment and keep on chugging, thereby avoiding a minor security issue by creating a huge security issue.
Aside from the security folks getting out of line, i mostly suspect its a push to stop all fat clients and traditional development and push more money to 'friends'. "we are now a no-code shop, and no apps are allowed unless they are web based, in the cloud". A feeling that the security team is just being used as the ones to transfer blame to.
And while that sounds paranoid, where i work, a lot of what goes on is to transfer cash to friends in the club. The system is corrupt at its core, and its how we operate, so its not paranoia, its always the first thing to suspect.
The latest rumor: All direct DB traffic from workstations will
be banned shortly. Even for developers..
We call that "ssh tunneling"
Most ports are blocked at the network level, and stuff like that would need requested for being open from your box to the remote IP. And in the case of a PDZ server, you have to access those from a VDI jump-box.. Also, if its not a whitelisted app, it wont run. it notifies security when you try. ( ssh is approved to have installed, but just saying ) And we all lost our local admin rights. Even field techs.. now its basically "if its not trivial, its a reload, sorry". And my understanding is they monitor traffic for 'questionable packets'. An entire team for that. hidden on another floor.
Officially getting around the blocks in any way is forbidden and cause for unconditional termination. ( before someone suggests "just move the port" )
Only real solution is to write a web app that does SQL management and claim its "part of the administration components of our app"..
Mon Aug 11 2025 00:32:37 UTC from IGnatius T FoobarThe latest rumor: All direct DB traffic from workstations will
be banned shortly. Even for developers..
We call that "ssh tunneling"
And speaking of ports and VPN.
this morning i guess something happened, and everyone's VPN client is being removed automatically. ( on windows i think. perhaps mac and phones too, dunno ). And people using SCCM "store" to reinstall, isn't working. And of course they sent out a link to manually do it, which no one has the rights to do anymore. " oops, users cant reinstall manually... sorry! we are working on this " .
lol
yay office locking down chrome this weekend to the point its basically useless. No plugins. No passwords, even basic autofill is being removed.
Not long ago they removed the ability for our field techs to remote into a machine for service. Now its 5 steps including 3 the user has to do just to let them in. And 1/2 the time, it takes 4 attempts to get it to work. I didn't know that happened until i need admin rights to install something. Since they removed it from all our accounts i had to call for an install. And getting that install approved was a nightmare, even tho i bought it with approval...
Wont miss this place one bit. "if we can do it, lets over do it as much as possible and make our users lives miserable, then we will laugh about it in meetings" (no, im not joking. They do think its funny and laugh in internal meetings )
Now I am going to have to defend China and Xi Jinping against the slander and propaganda from decadent capitalist westerns, I guess. That is actually not on the contract but I suspect the sponsorship would not last 5 minutes if I criticised China in public lol.
I have been saying it for a while, but a big problem in the West is the West has not been fostering any loyalty from its subjects in decades. Basically, if the society you live in is bent on destroying your lifestyle, mock your demographic group and take your animals, then you have no reason whatsoever to be loyal. The second an outsider hires you to promote their products so they displace the Western ones, you take the chance because you owe nothing to society.
By the way the product I am sponsored to promote is actually quite ok. Basically they copied a Western Big Tech design and made a Chinesse version they can sell for 15% the price. It is not like I am lying to people or anything, that is still off-limits.
Ya, purely at a technical level, not all chinese stuff is crapola. Choose wisely, its just as good as western products, or sometimes even better as you get more options ( if there even is a western version.. ), and sometimes it IS the western version, just rebranded... and all of it tons cheaper.
Now, choose poorly, its crap. But its a choice.
Wed Oct 08 2025 20:27:41 UTC from darknetuserLadies and gentlemen, I made it. I am an influencer. A branch of Huawei is actually sponsoring me. Yay.
Now I am going to have to defend China and Xi Jinping against the slander and propaganda from decadent capitalist westerns, I guess. That is actually not on the contract but I suspect the sponsorship would not last 5 minutes if I criticised China in public lol.
I have been saying it for a while, but a big problem in the West is the West has not been fostering any loyalty from its subjects in decades. Basically, if the society you live in is bent on destroying your lifestyle, mock your demographic group and take your animals, then you have no reason whatsoever to be loyal. The second an outsider hires you to promote their products so they displace the Western ones, you take the chance because you owe nothing to society.
By the way the product I am sponsored to promote is actually quite ok. Basically they copied a Western Big Tech design and made a Chinesse version they can sell for 15% the price. It is not like I am lying to people or anything, that is still off-limits.
2025-10-08 20:31 from Nurb432
Ya, purely at a technical level, not all chinese stuff is
crapola. Choose wisely, its just as good as western products,
or sometimes even better as you get more options ( if there even
is a western version.. ), and sometimes it IS the western
version, just rebranded... and all of it tons cheaper.
Now, choose poorly, its crap. But its a choice.
I think what you say about rebranded products is more true than you imagine.
On that front, Asia is becoming very dangerous. Do you know how Western/Center Europeans liked to boast their superior healthcare technology? A memory I have from an old job is some guy from the company meeting a salesman from a big European company and the salesman obviously explained why his products were awesome and had to be bought in spades. Around an hour later, he had a meeting with a salesman from an Asian company selling the Asian alternative.
The company person asked why we should buy from the Asian company instead of the European one. The salesman said "It is literally the same products. They hire us to make them in Asia then they put their logo on them."
Nah, i know all about that stuff. I used to deal in that in the 80s and 90s.
Somehow I found a supplier of grey-market goods. It really was the same exact thing, just missing the logos. Nothing they sold was 'original', so to speak, And for a small fee, they would add your logo if you wanted. They also had a catalog you could get, with either no prices or what prices you wanted ( for a small fee ) The internet killed them off long ago.
Wed Oct 08 2025 20:45:34 UTC from darknetuser
I think what you say about rebranded products is more true than you imagine.
My personal dislike aside, is it just my corner view of the industry, or is the entire IT ecosystem collapsing? Bunch of freaking siloed morons. Everywhere.
Now that it's official, I finally can post this.
Your humble sysop is moving into a brand new role at the same company. This will be the biggest change since I first moved in to this company nearly 25 years ago.
Our security engineering team is taking over a brand new line of business, namely security-focused and customer-facing products. And they've created a new role for someone to head up infrastructure and architecture for all of it. Me! I am sooooooper jazzed about this. What I was doing before was starting to get a little stale.
This is going to be fantastic!
2025-10-10 02:20 from IGnatius T Foobar
Sponsoring you to do what? Are you secretly on social media?
Do I look like a social media person?
Back in the day I was on social media because I thought I could use it for marketing campaigns. As you are well aware, I collect failed projects - I start projects that fail to generate a big customer base, but they still manage to generate some meager profit so I still maintain them. Well, most of those projects I had social media for.
I write off social media as a failure for me, but it helped me learn a couple of things. First one is I learnt which friends cared so little for me they would not do as much as follow me. The second one is nobody cares for anything I start, therefore I am no longer feel compelled to support anybody but a very small, select group of people who were in the trenches with me, trying to push my doomed projects forward.
I don't want to give many hints, but outside social media I have a, shall we say, spot, which has actually a quite sizeable audience around here. So basically the Chinese asked my boss if I could demonstrate the product in my spot for a little while and boss and I are splitting the sponsorship money.
I am making it look more exciting than it is, to be honest.