Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Has nobody learned that you only do personal things on a personal machine, and only work things on a work machine?

Define personal things. If it's sensitive personal stuff, yes, do that on your own machine. If you're just shopping for groceries, reg household items, reading news stories, etc., who cares if it's the work machine or the personal machine. I do ton's of personal stuff on it and I don't care. It's the same stuff I'd be willing to do on a public machine at a library or Internet cafe. Personal in that it's not work related, but not personal in that it's my banking info, SSN, or other sensitive info.

OTOH, you can only access the ADT payroll site to see your paystubs on your work machine, so you have private personal data downloaded to your work laptop. Same w/ ESPP & RSU data. You have to download it, then copy it to a USB stick and delete it, then move that data from the USB stick to your personal machine. But, once you're on the LR target list they push monitoring software to your system, or activate the currently installed stuff to increase the monitoring level, where they watch what files you copy to a USB stick and you can be contacted by HR to have you re-insert that USB stick and delete the files while they watch over screen sharing.

@1ppn+1sP8MLcX, if you're a Cisco employee & have a Cisco laptop, there's a dedicated SharePoint site that tells employees how to re-image their laptops. Mainly because if malware or a virus detected, or simply some piece of software isn't working properly, the HelpDesk directs you to this page and you are told to "re-image" the laptop and if the issues persist, then re-open your case and they'll test the hardware.

But yeah, you basically create a bootable USB stick w/ the Windows installer, or use the Internet recovery partition on a Mac and you format the drive, install from the installer, then when you go to some web page to "enroll" your laptop w/ the management software, all the "extra" stuff is pushed to your system. Easy peasy.

Has nobody learned that you only do personal things on a personal machine, and only work things on a work machine?

So how do you reimage a laptop ?
Do you need anything from Cisco's network or you simply install Windows over (no SN provided when installed)

What’s your reason of concern - leaving Cisco docs behind or erasing disk? Either way it doesn’t matter. Cisco needs the laptop hardware so it can be recycled.

My reason of concern, not necessarily that of the OP, is that the asset team are just people, and people are prone to make mistakes, especially when they have hundreds or thousands of laptops coming in at one time to be re-imaged and turned in or given back out to Cisco contractors until the lease ends. If I re-image the laptop, then I know that my personal data is gone.

If you have personal stuff in your work laptop that you are worried about, it’s already too late.

I don't care if Cisco has my "personal" data because they won't bother to go view it in the backups. I care if they mistakenly skip re-imaging the laptop and it gets returned to the leasing company and then gets sold off with my data. Any of my personal data on the laptop is probably in HR systems somewhere, not just the backup system(s). I feel the same as @1lnj+1sP8MLcX.

To @1dqf+1sP8MLcX comment, while the expectation is to use it only for work, Cisco's policies are that we can use the system for "occasional" personal use. Some data, is jointly owned by Cisco and the Employee, i.e. Performance Reviews, ESPP purchases and sales, RSU grants, Paystubs, Benefits elections, etc. You DO have a right to ensure that those documents are removed.

Cisco would have a hard time prosecuting me to "the full extent of the law" if Code42 was misconfigured (that's on IT, unless they can prove I did something to disable it) because the expectation is that Cisco is backing up critical files, I'm doing my due diligence checking in my code into the source code management systems of Cisco's choice, storing documents in SharePoint, Box, or team shared network folders.

What if I want to declare it lost and to pay for it? I would for.at the drive but I am wondering if the bios could cobtain anything that could still call back to Cisco

Apple Macs, as long as the laptop is under lease, it's registered as a Cisco laptop and if you re-image it, it "checks" in and re-registers itself. Once it's bought out, that "registration" is removed and then you can re-image it as a non-Cisco device. I'm not sure how it works, but ran into that as I was re-imaging my old laptop I was turning in as part of the refresh process. It's super easy to boot off a USB bootable "recovery" disk, or macOS recovery partition, to then format the main OS & Data partitions and overwrite them w/ a clean install. Between the whole disk encryption, format, and installing an OS, you've scrambled the SSD enough that any un-overwritten blocks are not readable as data, it's just a block of random characters.

After 15+ yrs at Cisco, I've re-imaged every laptop I've turned in for refresh, re-imaged most laptops on my team before they returned them for refresh, and I've never had the Asset Team or HR contact them or me asking about why the laptop is "clean". In some cases, I was unable to re-install an OS, leaving the laptop non-bootable and it still wasn't an issue.

What if I want to declare it lost and to pay for it? I would for.at the drive but I am wondering if the bios could cobtain anything that could still call back to Cisco

Here’s the thing - it is not “your” laptop, it is not “your” SDD. Cisco’s name is on the lease. All the data on your PC is Cisco’s, even your private files. You are just a user of the device the company provided you for the purpose of work. The expectation thus is to use it only for work… You don’t have any rights with regards the PC or its contents. Period.

Do not delete anything, because 1 they have a copy anyway, 2 it is not yours. If you do, and lose critical data for the company (say code42 wasn’t properly backing up your PC), you are legally responsible and can be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Again, not your device, not your data. Just don’t. This goes to any company, not just Cisco.

Doesn't Code42 backup everything? If you use the cloud, they have access to that. Basically, don't have any of this stuff on your device, it's not private.

I carried out a factory reset on my MacBook before handing it back, including wiping the data. Pointless really because, if you’ve been compliant with policy, Cisco has all your data anyway. Made me feel marginally happier though.

If you have personal stuff in your work laptop that you are worried about, it’s already too late.

Cisco install lot of cr-p to monitor your activities including your camera, displays, USBs and # of monitors. They have the right to do so per the employee contract.

What’s your reason of concern - leaving Cisco docs behind or erasing disk? Either way it doesn’t matter. Cisco needs the laptop hardware so it can be recycled.

You under an LR to return this laptop? Are there others?