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laynamarya
Joined: 01 Jan 2010
Location: Gwangjin-gu
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 Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 6:16 am Post subject: Email Servers Being Blocked? |
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Maybe this is just the government playing a ridiculous April Fool's Day joke on us, but my supervisor just told us that the Seoul government is blocking all email servers in public and private schools starting Monday to 'prevent the spread of computer viruses.' I don't think this applies to hagwons.
I don't know about you, but it is nigh-impossible to do my job without email. Sure, there are ways around it, but the policy is still ridiculous.
Has anyone else heard anything about this? |
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littlelisa
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:57 am Post subject: |
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Do you mean SMOE? They mentioned this a while ago, and then as far as I can tell, they dropped it. However they seem to have replaced it with a worse plan. A few weeks ago they requested to know all sites that are necessary for work, and they said that they will be blocking ALL other sites except the ones we provide. They aren't blocking email providers, I know gmail will still work. Some of my coworkers have already discussed using proxies. I emailed the office and asked to add three more websites that I forgot about to be added to the unblocked list and they said they may not be able to because the deadline has passed and they think it's too late for permission for new sites to be added to that list.
They've also added another 20 - 30 sites to their blocked list, mostly Korean sites, but really any website that hosts files (microsoft office 365 was on there, for example), so I assume that's to stop viruses.
Blocking file sharing sites I can understand, but blocking ALL sites except for ones that you must provide in a one week window several weeks in advance is ridiculous. I'm hoping they drop the idea like they did with the email thing. |
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YTMND
Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Location: You're the man now dog!!
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| Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 2:14 am Post subject: |
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Blocking email sites does NOT stop the spread of viruses.
People will just use USB sticks or what happens when they hook their phone or camera to their computer?
It's not viruses that's the worry, it's sales scams.
Proxy servers and vpns can get around this if it is blocked. It might actually be good to put in a filter system. China does it, and I can still get on youtube when I need a fix. |
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faeriehazel
Joined: 04 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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| I work at a high school in Seoul and our supervisor gave us similar news: that starting from April the Ministry of Education is blocking all web-based emails and forcing everyone to us their school emails (which my coworkers and I don't even have, since we're part time teachers). He thinks it makes it easier for them to spy on our emails. I don't care why they're doing it; it's just stupid. |
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augustine
Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Location: México
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| Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Yep, I can't sign into my gmail or yahoo email accounts today. This policy is retarded. |
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slothrop
Joined: 03 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 10:24 pm Post subject: |
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edit
Last edited by slothrop on Mon Jun 10, 2013 7:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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denverdeath
Joined: 21 May 2005
Location: Boo-sahn
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| Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:03 am Post subject: |
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| slothrop wrote: |
blocking access to email is totally unacceptable. probably, nothing will happen. but in the unlikely event war breaks out you guys will need access to your email and other embassy websites to recieve updates and plans for evacuation.
you should DEMAND access to those sites. |
yeah. or, use ur phones. or, ur coms at home. regardless, DOES some pretty unreasonable! |
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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:40 am Post subject: |
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| slothrop wrote: |
blocking access to email is totally unacceptable. probably, nothing will happen. but in the unlikely event war breaks out you guys will need access to your email and other embassy websites to recieve updates and plans for evacuation.
you should DEMAND access to those sites. |
You don't own your school computer, they do. You don't pay for the internet, they do. You should be using their computer for work-related things only.
Also, it's common practice at almost every single federal and provincial government office throughout Canada to block email and social networking sites. |
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actionjackson
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Location: Any place I'm at
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| Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| slothrop wrote: |
blocking access to email is totally unacceptable. probably, nothing will happen. but in the unlikely event war breaks out you guys will need access to your email and other embassy websites to recieve updates and plans for evacuation.
you should DEMAND access to those sites. |
You don't own your school computer, they do. You don't pay for the internet, they do. You should be using their computer for work-related things only.
Also, it's common practice at almost every single federal and provincial government office throughout Canada to block email and social networking sites. |
What to do then when your place of work actually uses those email sites for work related announcements, as we don't have an internal system? |
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Swampfox10mm
Joined: 24 Mar 2011
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| Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:19 pm Post subject: |
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| StrongVPN. |
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augustine
Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Location: México
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| Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| slothrop wrote: |
blocking access to email is totally unacceptable. probably, nothing will happen. but in the unlikely event war breaks out you guys will need access to your email and other embassy websites to recieve updates and plans for evacuation.
you should DEMAND access to those sites. |
You don't own your school computer, they do. You don't pay for the internet, they do. You should be using their computer for work-related things only.
Also, it's common practice at almost every single federal and provincial government office throughout Canada to block email and social networking sites. |
Well, it's Canada... 
Give me a break, though. "You should be using their computer for work-related things only" = you are a tool. Blocking personal email is over the top. But, I bet you're the, "Psss... boss... I saw George playing solitaire on his work computer during his break!" kind of guy. Nobody likes those kinds of people. |
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3DR
Joined: 24 May 2009
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| Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 7:13 am Post subject: |
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| God this country is so damn paranoid about viruses that they overdo it...and still get hacked! |
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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 8:07 am Post subject: |
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| augustine wrote: |
| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| slothrop wrote: |
blocking access to email is totally unacceptable. probably, nothing will happen. but in the unlikely event war breaks out you guys will need access to your email and other embassy websites to recieve updates and plans for evacuation.
you should DEMAND access to those sites. |
You don't own your school computer, they do. You don't pay for the internet, they do. You should be using their computer for work-related things only.
Also, it's common practice at almost every single federal and provincial government office throughout Canada to block email and social networking sites. |
Well, it's Canada...
Give me a break, though. "You should be using their computer for work-related things only" = you are a tool. Blocking personal email is over the top. But, I bet you're the, "Psss... boss... I saw George playing solitaire on his work computer during his break!" kind of guy. Nobody likes those kinds of people. |
I don't really understand where this hostility is coming from. And what are you trying to imply about Canada?
The fact is that the computer and Internet you use at work are provided to you by the provincial government, and paid for with tax dollars. If you really want to have access to a computer for your own personal use, then bring your own laptop and tether your phone's LTE.
However, I do fully agree that email and cloud storage sites should be left unblocked, since we need those for our daily work. |
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augustine
Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Location: México
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| Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 9:19 am Post subject: |
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| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| I do fully agree that email and cloud storage sites should be left unblocked, since we need those for our daily work. |
Then why did your initial post disagree with this?:
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| blocking access to email is totally unacceptable. probably, nothing will happen. but in the unlikely event war breaks out you guys will need access to your email and other embassy websites to recieve updates and plans for evacuation. |
I teach 2-3, 50 minute classes a day and have to sit around for almost two hours before they even start. I have to be there at 12 tomorrow/today, classes start just before 2, and I'm off a little after 4. We're tearing through the book, there is no way I can sit there for nearly two hours doing prep work, especially when there is no oversight, and when I'm in a room by myself the whole time... with my company supplied computer.
This is a "computer virus" thing, and it's BS. I was told to run some previously installed anti-virus program on my computer once a month, but I have no idea what that has to do with my gmail account. Those first two hours are a good time for taking care of family emails and conversing with friends via gmail. Even with 2-3 free hours to spare per day during work, I need an outlet or I'm going to fall asleep at my desk since I have nothing to do. And it doesn't matter anyway, since we have VPNs, and I can access my gmail account daily.  |
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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:19 pm Post subject: |
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| augustine wrote: |
| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| I do fully agree that email and cloud storage sites should be left unblocked, since we need those for our daily work. |
Then why did your initial post disagree with this?:
| Quote: |
| blocking access to email is totally unacceptable. probably, nothing will happen. but in the unlikely event war breaks out you guys will need access to your email and other embassy websites to recieve updates and plans for evacuation. |
I teach 2-3, 50 minute classes a day and have to sit around for almost two hours before they even start. I have to be there at 12 tomorrow/today, classes start just before 2, and I'm off a little after 4. We're tearing through the book, there is no way I can sit there for nearly two hours doing prep work, especially when there is no oversight, and when I'm in a room by myself the whole time... with my company supplied computer.
This is a "computer virus" thing, and it's BS. I was told to run some previously installed anti-virus program on my computer once a month, but I have no idea what that has to do with my gmail account. Those first two hours are a good time for taking care of family emails and conversing with friends via gmail. Even with 2-3 free hours to spare per day during work, I need an outlet or I'm going to fall asleep at my desk since I have nothing to do. And it doesn't matter anyway, since we have VPNs, and I can access my gmail account daily. |
I never said emails should be blocked. I said that using your school computer for anything other than work related things is a bad idea. Even if you use a VPN or a proxy, the fact that you are using those things can also easily be traced and come back to haunt you. It's a policy that they decided on so you have no choice to go along with it. As foreign teachers we don't exactly have a lot of pull either.
And really...? You have 2-3 hours of free time at work that you can't find something better to do with than browse the internet and sleep? We are talking about public school, yes? |
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