By the pricking of my thumb...
Sep. 15th, 2006 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqI'm sure that most of our IT people aren't dead, but if they were, they'd be turning over in their graves. Even so, I would not be surprised to hear that one of them sat bolt-upright in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and cried, "By the pricking of my thumb, something wicked this way comes!"
I have no doubt that some of the folks in our IT department, and more specifically those who deal with security issues, would not approve of the little application that I just installed on my machine, but (to use an old analogy here), but if you want to make an omelet, sometimes you have to smack around a few hens to coax the eggs out of them.
What I have installed is a small plug-in for Outlook to suppress those warnings when an outside application tries to send an email through Outlook. It's not that I disagree with that particular safety feature, but its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, it doesn't tell me which application is trying to send. More importantly, though, it blocks legitimate applications that are simply trying to send information or status reports. I can't automate some mail processes because I have to be here to click "okay" every time the requester comes up.
This plug-in will allow me to "whitelist" a few processes - and only those processes - so that their mail goes out without that pesky prompt. It seems like a legitimate enough thing to me, but I have a hunch our security people would not approve.
I have no doubt that some of the folks in our IT department, and more specifically those who deal with security issues, would not approve of the little application that I just installed on my machine, but (to use an old analogy here), but if you want to make an omelet, sometimes you have to smack around a few hens to coax the eggs out of them.
What I have installed is a small plug-in for Outlook to suppress those warnings when an outside application tries to send an email through Outlook. It's not that I disagree with that particular safety feature, but its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, it doesn't tell me which application is trying to send. More importantly, though, it blocks legitimate applications that are simply trying to send information or status reports. I can't automate some mail processes because I have to be here to click "okay" every time the requester comes up.
This plug-in will allow me to "whitelist" a few processes - and only those processes - so that their mail goes out without that pesky prompt. It seems like a legitimate enough thing to me, but I have a hunch our security people would not approve.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-15 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-15 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-15 03:10 pm (UTC)I know why you're doing this, and I like the fact that you've whitelisted only certain processes, but yeah...
I think if your IT department were to find out about this, they'd shit themselves in several different colors. Outlook is not known for being even slightly security-friendly, and you've just poked a hole in one of it's New Orleans style levees.
You might want to f-lock this post while you're at it, too.
If you can get the application to log each access attempt, then that would go a long way to soothing any ruffled feathers, too. At least that way if things go wrong, you'll be able to root out exactly which program did it.