It's me, Pete... from the podcast.

The Gerbils in the Henhouse

Ahh, the Gerbils are at it again. Got this in my inbox on Wednesday, the day before we’re all out of there for the holiday…

Announcing Company Wide Internet Content Filtering

To protect the Company’s business interests and our employees, the Company has implemented a tool that provides for increased security of our systems. With the participation of various departments, selected categories of Internet content that create risks to the Company and our systems were identified and will be restricted from access. This new product will protect our electronic world from harm caused by Internet searching and related activities and help to ensure a safer computing environment.

An additional feature of this tool is that it provides for greater monitoring of Internet traffic which will allow us to better monitor our systems for appropriate use. Therefore we would like to remind all of our employees that as a regular business practice, activity on the Internet will be monitored for fraud, waste and abuse including personal and other non-business use. Any evidence of inappropriate use may result in disciplinary actions. Any evidence of criminal activity may be provided to appropriate agencies, including law enforcement agencies.
This new service is being deployed throughout the enterprise and will be enabled for your region on Monday, Nov. 29, 2004. Following this date, should a problem related to being denied Internet content that is required for legitimate business purposes, please contact Company Tech Support at 1–800-XXX-XXXX.

Information Security Office

To sweeten the 1984-ishness of it, please note that I didn’t change anything in the above passage but the phone number. That’s right, the idiots referred to us as “The Company” over and over and over.