Is it possible?

Hi,

The simple answer is yes.

There are many possibilities for this including the obvious ones like someone simply sitting down at your PC when you're not there, to finding out your password (watching you type it for instance, or "sniffing" the network for it as its typed) and then mapping your drives.

There is a possibility that you have a virus on your PC that has installed a "back door" - through which your machine becomes visible to the person with the right software at the "far end". A virus checker would help determine this - but *may* not find it...

High tech solutions include monitoring and capturing the EMF (electro magnetic field) produced by your monitor and re-creating the screen from afar. This is the kind of access someone would use on you only if your had links to the mafia, though!

Are any of these posibilities likely? Well, I guess you've got to ask yourself is anyone out there likely to *want* to look at my files - are they really worth that much to them?

Years ago one of my System programmer mentors used to say "Yes, I'm paranoid about people hacking in to our computers, but am I paranoid enough?"

Cheers,
Tim.

There are lots of ways you could be being tracked. Some are right under your nose like the Journal feature in MS Office. Your system administrator could track your activities too.

But why would he/she care. Everyone is usually busy working andif the are not they are probably doing something more interesting to them. If your printer is the only shared item it would be alot of trouble for someone to get into your files. I wouldn't sweat it.

However, I wouldn't assume my activity was completely private either. But I don't mean that you are being spied upon. I only mean that it is like having a conversation in a restaurant, you never know if someone nearby is listening.

Servers can keep all kinds of stats. Someone may trackwho spends the most time on the internet or whatever. You just never know especially in bigger companies.

You are probably not being watched but you will leave clues in many places as to where you are spending your time.

If you ever suspect someone is tampering with you files, Win2k can actually keep a log of who and when but you have to set it up.

This depends on the OS that is installed
Windows 2000 has a couple of featuress that makes this possible
EFS-The Encrypted File System is an extra layer of protection against unauthorized access that allows you to encrypt files and folders
Auditing-It can record possible security problems or security-related events,you can configure audit policies
There are other third party software that can be purchased to monitor files
Windows NT Server 4
Auditing Files is managed thru File Manager
Setting up auditing is a matter of declaring the groups or users whose use of a file

Tim is right, it is very possible that someone has access to your files.

In fact, your company may have software on the server to monitor what you are doing, and if you are following company policies.

Can you find out?
That depends on companypolicies.
Are you allowed to install software on your workstation?

There are numerous utilities that you could install to look for probes and unexpected port activity.
Check out www.samspade.org

You may even be able to install a firewall.Remember, even with a firewall on your system, any network traffic is expossed to anyone who wants to look at it bad enough.