Can my internet activity be monitored if my phone is tethered to laptop?

Question

Let's say I connect my phone to my laptop connected to my work network. Can IT at my work monitor the sites that I visit?

What is the information that they can possibly view?

Answer 1

Short answer: If your company controls one of the following three things, they can monitor what you do: Your laptop, your phone, the network through which you connect to the Internet.

Long answer:

• If your company controls the network through which you connect, (e.g. you connect through their Wi-Fi) they could easily see which DNS queries you send, to which IP addresses you connect, and in case of non-encrypted web traffic, what exactly you send and receive. With very sophisticated technology, the can decrypt your communications too, but in my experience, no mere "company" has it.
• If your company controls the computer with which you connect, they could install software that monitors everything, almost with no bounds. Rule #2 of the Ten Immutable Laws of Security says "If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it's not your computer anymore."
• Same goes with your phone, but in my experience their monitoring ability is severely limited on phones (especially iPhones), both technically and legally.

If you connect with your own Internet connection (say, your own 3G connection), your own phone and your own laptop, just make sure you are not sitting within the visual range of a security camera. That's your company's only mean of monitoring.

Answer 2

It depends entirely on the setup of the laptop. If the IT department is not very worried about control then they won't be checking it.

It is, however, possible (although a bit unlikely) that - if they set up the laptop - there is auditing software on the laptop which could record and log it.

If it's "your" computer, or a commuter you installed the OS on, then it's unlikely that this software is installed.

As a very, very loose rule - if you have admin rights to the box, they probably have not installed software, as it csn typically be subverted anyway.