Need to pick someone's brain...
 

Hey folks, maybe a bit of a strange question but here goes...

Basically I've been made redundant, and been given my 8 weeks notice...
I work in graphic design, and have Offered my boss a sum of money to buy my computer system with everything on it (design software etc...) Now, in theory if I take this pc away, plug it in at home and get it up and running on my own internet, could my boss still have access to what I'm doing on it? Things like looking at my emails etc? I'm thinking if he has the relevant codes and info for this particular pc he could in theory access it from his home? Any help on this would be very much appreciated:thumb:

If logmein were installed then yes they could but you can remove that. As for email it all depends how it was hosted. You should archieve your emails into a pst file. Make sure you get the loal administartor password for that machine reset

Hi WRX, many thanks for that - I'm really not too clued up on this side of things.

Ask to have it removed from the domain if its on one

from what you mention, it sounds as if you are on a mac ? Could be wrong but if you are, then I doubt it has been joined to the domain so as long as you have the admin username and password for the machine then you should be okay

There may be a second back door admin or root account which you can remove

Re the email, if it is a corporate account say Exchange then you can remove that and he won't have access to it

Remote access, unless there are remote applications on the machine such as Logmein, Gotomypc etc, then he won't have access. this includes VNC etc

If it is a PC, then it may well be on a domain so yes, ask for it to be removed
Same goes for email

If you buy the kit then you should get title to the machine. Just make sure that you have agreements in place for warranties on the hardware if there are any.

I appreciate that everyone is speaking from an technical/network access point of view, but don't forget that potentially all the work on there, unless you're freelance and the work hasn't been commissioned by a third party, is going to be and will remain the intellectual property of your firm - and if you take it you open yourself up to all kinds of potential issues.

Best bet would be to discuss the matter - discuss what data belongs to who (assuming you're going to be taking data with the machine), and what you can and can't take.... then all should be happy and you also will be protected in the eyes of the law should he later attempt to obtain unauthorised access to your machine.

Why would you want to take a work machine with you? If you are making an offer for the software, will you have the media to reinstall it? You may find that the licence provides for an entitlement for the company to use the software but they can not transfer or sell on that licence.

I once fell foul of this when supplying IT services to an architectural practice. I agreed to some discount for them, on the assumption that I would be able to sell on some un-used autodesk software. It went onto ebay and within 2 days I had emails from Autodesk advising that the software could not be sold on, I would be breaching the licence terms.