Ask HN: Playing multiplayer games while BYOD WFH

[embeddedsystems]

I work at a large-ish non-tech company that was forced into WFH by covid and was not really prepared for it. We install a SSL VPN and DLP software, and it split tunnels traffic. It's not a tech co and we weren't all issued corporate macbook pros or similar. We do handle some user data on these, and I believe the customer service people are also in the same situation, BYOD + VPN. I don't get paid enough to buy a whole separate setup.

I've recently found out (thanks to a HN post) that virtually all of the online games I play use increasingly invasive anticheats, and some such as Battleye will send the full contents of every certificate and driver installed, including work ones, and Hackshield/Gameguard send PII, full paths, names of open files, all of the above send full window titles and other contents that might contain personal information - even while there are no games running, and several of the rootkits start at boot. These services start and run at all times, and are not uninstalled when you uninstall the game.

I definitely have had private full names and private internal email addresses and other such things in window titles, items that would be considered 'restricted' in filenames of documents.

Do I need to be worried about this from a legal or "leaking trade secrets/PII" point of view because of the spyware that virtually every game in the world installs?

[tubularhells]

I had a similar BYOD situation since years back. I just worked out of a virtual machine on my pc. They cannot tell what's happening outside the VM, so they have no idea if you are playing a quick match to relax. :)

Linux host, window guest. When I left I just destroyed the VM and that was it.

[embeddedsystems]

It isn't that I'm playing a game, it's that game anticheat these days will collect and send so much PII 24/7 even when there is no game running, and the anticheat service is NOT removed when you uninstall the game that loaded it. And of course the anticheat service blocks VMs / will ban you if it detects VMware, VirtualBox, etc.

I'm wondering what happens to company data that's been exfiltrated by these anticheat services or how it's protected

[tubularhells]

I use Linux so I have no idea about these problems.

[Channel]

Just because it's BYOD doesn't mean you should be installing any non-work apps. Get a separate device for games.

[embeddedsystems]

Should I just try to expense a cheap Thinkpad then? To be clear, this was not a corporate issued device, it is my home PC that I installed the VPN client on - my work is largely done in a browser on a "LAN" website. The VPN client won't connect unless I have AV up to date and windows updates up to date

[viraptor]

Ah, that massively changes things. If they provide you a work laptop and you install private stuff on it, you've got a problem (they may know, it may be a point that gets brought up when someone has an issue with your performance, etc.).

If they expect you to work from your machine, it's completely their problem to protect their IT side. But it's also your potential problem that the company may get access to your private data.

Ideally, if you can, just request a work laptop. "Your VPN client doesn't work correctly on my laptop" should help. It helps both them and you if any issues arise.