Beware who can hear you.

[VicW]

While having a coffee this morning I was sat at the next table to a young lady who was booking a holiday using her mobile phone. Every word she said was quite clearly heard and had I been a low life I would now be in possession of her full name and address, the dates she would be away, both her phone numbers and her full bank card details.
I could now rob her empty house, sell her phone numbers, steal her identity and hack her bank card account. The guy sat opposite me looked at me and shook his head.
I pointed out to the young lady what she had just done and her response was that I shouldn't have been listening as it was  a private conversation. I reminded her that she was in a public place and that I hoped she enjoyed her holiday in Greece.

Vic.

[Mr.C]

Get it on the commuter train to work all the time. And they wonder why they get hacked. I did see one chap write it all down and hand her the newspaper so she could see what she'd announced to the whole carriage. She too got the hump.

[yates]

I was travelling back from Birmingham to Sheffield yesterday evening. There were four ladies in the seats behind my son and myself who were discussing in very unfavourable terms people who they work with. Breaking confidentiality on several works related issues. They had no idea that I am a manager for the same company and know personally many of the people they were making comments about.

[Cosmicblue]

It happens - I was on a train on the way into London recently where the woman diagonally opposite/ahead of me opened her laptop, logged on to her corporate network and started editing a client presentation - within minutes I knew her name, the client's name and the commercial details of their bid. As it happened I knew that company quite well having worked with their corporate IT Security team on a few occasions.  The woman was likely a newly qualified graduate hoping to carry off a stellar client pitch.

I could have simply dumped her in the pooh with the her employer's Security Team - most likely resulting in instant dismissal but instead located her on LinkedIn and sent her with a connection request along with a note.  A day or two passed before a humble/lesson learned reply arrived. 

Edited December 2, 2019 by Cosmicblue

[The Mighty Prawn]

I have to be very careful with my job and what I say appearing worrying, I worked on a murder mystery TV drama a few years ago and was at a garden centre when I got a call about an actor not being available on their scheduled day so I was saying things like "We'll have to do the murder on tuesday now and move hiding the body to Wednesday" when my wife gave me a look to make me aware people were starting to give me funny looks... 

[Wb123]

18 minutes ago, Cosmicblue said:

It happens - I was on a train on the way into London recently where the woman diagonally opposite/ahead of me opened her laptop, logged on to her corporate network and started editing a client presentation - within minutes I knew her name, the client's name and the commercial details of their bid. As it happened I knew that company quite well having worked with their corporate IT Security team on a few occasions.  The woman was likely a newly qualified graduate hoping to carry off a stellar client pitch.

I could have simply dumped her in the pooh with the her employer's Security Team - most likely resulting in instant dismissal but instead located her on LinkedIn and sent her with a connection request along with a note.  A day or two passed before a humble/lesson learned reply arrived. 

This is an interesting problem. My better half spends large amounts of time travelling for work all of which is billed to the client as time in which she is working via her work laptop.

Her employer are clear information in her office at home should be locked away but it is not possible to manage the workload or bill enough hours without working on public transport, and also not possible to entirely secure the screen (though she does have a narrow viewing angle filter).

 

Times may be changing but everywhere I have worked have had clear written instant dismissal rules on data exposure, and a clear unwritten policy of ignoring instances when people get reported (though that may be due to difficulty replacing anyone who would then be fired).

[arjimlad]

A long-running multiple defendant criminal trial had to be abandoned, the jury discharged and the case relisted after one junior clerk was overheard discussing the poor performance of one of the witnesses over the phone, by the juror who was sitting behind her on the bus. 

 

The firm employing the clerk faced a huge bill for the wasted costs. 

[udderlyoffroad]

Had a brief stint working in the Defence industry a last year;  we were required not to do any work or discuss business on public transport.  Was quite pleasant, getting paid to sit there and read a book/watch Netflix, whilst people around you are bashing out powerpoints and firing off backside-covering emails.

That said, once at Bristol airport security my a colleague and I were getting funny looks because we were talking about the need to finish the 'Bill of Materials', only we were using the abbreviation....

 

 

[Dibble]

A friend's boyfriend/partner (whatever you call them when you are 50) works for a company which isn't a direct competitor but in similar markets and has some of the same suppliers as my employer. At Xmas we will gave people round and after a few beers he starts talking about his work, what he says is of commercial interest, I tend to move rooms to get away but he keeps going on and on..........

I can't unhear what I have heard.

Edited December 2, 2019 by Dibble

[Davyo]

ITS NOT JUST JO PUBLIC! I used to worked in  a tax office for HMRC mainly dealing with agents and accountants. On many occasion i've refused to speak with an agent and had to ask them to call back when its convenient.This was because they where spouting their clients designatory details in a public place, for example a train. National insurance number /UTR, full name, address and d.o.b, just blurted out for all to hear.

[dodeer]

My friend has a car stolen when he was on a train saying he was going to Gatwick to fly away for two weeks in Dubai and he had left his mechanic the keys for the car on the wheel of it along with the road name and house name and gate code.

Of course it went the next day and he had trouble with claiming insurance 

[Bobba]

1 hour ago, udderlyoffroad said:

Had a brief stint working in the Defence industry a last year;  we were required not to do any work or discuss business on public transport. 

This goes back a long way in time. In the early 80's the first class carriage of the early morning Bath to London train would be full of MOD senior staff briefing themselves before meetings. Brown folder jackets were "normal": Green were "Confidential": Pink were "Secret". The pink files were quite revealing if you had practiced the art of reading upside down. Not sure whether it was MOD Police or the Spooks that cottoned on to the malpractice but it became known that one morning a couple of "Chaps" wandered through the compartment making notes then speaking to people. It was rumoured that many were later interviewed and had the security breach black spot on their personal file. I would guesse it was those reading Pink jacketed files.

[Retsdon]

On 02/12/2019 at 17:28, The Mighty Prawn said:

I have to be very careful with my job and what I say appearing worrying, I worked on a murder mystery TV drama a few years ago and was at a garden centre when I got a call about an actor not being available on their scheduled day so I was saying things like "We'll have to do the murder on tuesday now and move hiding the body to Wednesday" when my wife gave me a look to make me aware people were starting to give me funny looks... 

That's funny!

[Davyo]

When I worked for HMRC just leaving you desk to go to the printer without locking your surface pro was a NO NO.

 If i worked from home then (and I dont know how this works) our intranet builds a secure network within a Wfi network.Ive never opened my pro in public as said it's a dismissal.Have used it in the privacy of a hotel room though and always locked away in hotel safe.If I didn't take it back to the hotel,then it would be locked in a secure cabinet within the HMRC office I was attending.

When at home or I'm on holiday its was locked in my old (not used for shooting anymore) amo cabinet.