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I have access to a VPN network while I'm in my office. If I'm in the VPN I can access sites that my office network has blocked. Can the IT admins see that I'm going to those sites? And if so at what part of the network is it visible?

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  • Who owns the VPN? What are the capabilities of your IT admins? Do they run anything on your computer?
    – forest
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 0:52
  • The customer owns the VPN. I'm not sure if the answers to the other questions. They run anti virus but not sure what else.
    – DMacE
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 1:00
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    If you're not sure what else they run, then the answer to your question is "I'm not sure".
    – forest
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 1:02
  • What would I look for to see what they run?
    – DMacE
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 1:06
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    Not necessarily, but they can see that you're using a VPN and wonder what exactly you're doing that you don't want the IT people to see. Then they just need to install any of a million commercial monitoring tools. The typical solution to this problem is to focus on work at work, and not try to hide from the IT department which controls your computer, internet connection, and which can possibly get you fired for hiding from them
    – anon
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 1:06

2 Answers 2

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It really depends on what you really mean. Can they see what is in the packets? Probably not. Can they see that the traffic is encrypted and you are using a VPN? More than likely. Can they see your browser history? I would say it is safe to assume they would be able to. So in short, yes but not at the network level.

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  • They don't even need to look in the browser history. There are remote monitoring tools that don't show up in Task Manager; they could be watching as you browse right now. While it is unlikely that they watch everyone, an unauthorized VPN connection may prompt them to start watching you. Rating: 0/10, would not recommend.
    – DoubleD
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 20:49
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To my understanding:

  • Some websites at Your company networks are blocked
  • You access VPN which belongs to one of Your customers

If above is correct, Your company's IT staff might not see websites You visit. The "might" in previous sentence relates to how do You access this VPN. If the VPN is not fully tunneled (e.g. You can see hosts in customer's network, but You dont get their IP for accessing internet) then Your IT staff will see the traffic.

If the VPN connection is fully tunneled (You can see hosts + Your connection is fully routed through customer's network) then Your company's IT staff won't see anything as the connection is encrypted. But then, on the customer's network side, their IT staff might log Your connection as You use their network.

Moreover, customer's VPN server might log every request You do, every host You connect to etc.

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