Hi I recently switched jobs and was given a brand new laptop (belongs to the company) and they had me install jamf. I want to travel abroad while working but I don’t want to ask for permission because it will most likely get denied and expose my desire to work abroad.
How can I hide the fact I am working abroad?
I am not sure how much a VPN would work in this scenario since it’s not like I am connecting to a remote computer via a citrix or some other client.
Rough thought, a Router/wifi device capable of VPN capability with a profile that forces captive VPN. So anything connected to it goes through VPN.
They make tiny routers for the traveling person. Maybe these could work?
I’ve seen some firms ship routers to executives’ homes to make sure they don’t expose their internal stuff to a home network. These use VPN.
I would be extremely careful if it is an iOS device. Based on this video, the system admin can choose to put the device into lost mode at any time. I think lost mode on iOS devices can give away your location if it pings off a nearby Apple device, similar to how the Airtags work.
Before committing full on to the lifestyle. Maybe request few days off, fly to a nearby country and try working on the laptop. See if it is geofenced, or if it triggers any red flags with your IT department. Even if you get caught, you can still innocuously claim to be a workaholic who just wanted to check email while on vacation.
Seriously, if they putting Jamf on there it sounds like they’re actively monitoring the device.
All you need is one fuck up and all of your efforts are blown.
And it’s pretty easy to fuck up security/privacy. And especially so if you think the digital nomad sub is a good place for security/privacy questions.
Obviously, your risk goes down considerably when the employer doesn’t go to the trouble of licensing relatively expensive and complicated monitoring software. But yours did so you’re at a much greater risk.
I just rolled off an account with a financial services company with prod access…
The laptop was very locked down…
Answer: I told my manager (contract with account) and it was fine
The moment of tension was that I did have to be on with IT support for about 3 hours to get the laptop working (turned out it was probably just that it needed OS updates installed)… I am certain he could see I was in a different country but he didn’t ask questions or escalate. He did ask, “can you get into an office,” and, “I can’t ship you a new laptop for 2 days,” which would have been a likely job-ending nightmare. We changed my password and somehow that allowed me to log in to their network.
I tried to jump off a laptops connection that had internet over VPN, but eventually found it to be atrociously and unusably slow. I think this setup would be somewhat safe but more doable if you use a router. It’s not a simple setup, but in general a lot of times you cannot install 3rd party software onto your laptop.
Someone might have better ideas for you.
My laptop has half installed. I travel without a VPN. No one has ever said anything. IT would have to be actively paying attention and alerting HR. No one I’ve ever know from IT would do that.
In case someone is following up, I’d recommend a short trip to run a test and see what happens.
I wish I could get 1 Russian Ruble for each time this question has been asked on here.
Beautiful, just what I was looking for !!! So this way I bypass ISP completely correct? No trace whatsoever? Although I would still technically be using the internet service but it’s just that the path is laptop → VPN router → VPN server → internet ?
Jamf is a remote management software that can’t be uninstalled or tampered with (unless you have admin access).
It’s usually there to actively monitor your device.
So, I think OP’s It department has already gone to the trouble to monitor their hardware.
As far as I can envision, yes.
Standard disclaimer, I’m a typical IT admin idgit. Your milage may vary as each solution won’t cover it all. Just plugging in what we explored internally.
See here as someone tried this, many VPN providers hand out ovpn profiles.
Yes I’m aware. I have it on my work laptop and have traveled the world with it with no problems.
well actually after a bit more research, I dont think we are fully bypassing ISP 
. VPN router it seems to be essentially same as app, except now any device connected to VPN router will go via a VPN connection (after going through ISP first) correct? so in theory my computer will still be receiving the fact that packets are coming from ISP?
Just use 2 routers, one at your location residence (at home) and one that you travel with (good if it also works as an access point/repeater). Then create a Tor tunnel linking your routers together. So data goes from your pc to the router, gets encrypted and then sent to your other router at home, and then out to the WWW. All of this is completely free except for the cost of the routers
Well what about ISP, you explanation I think ignores that part right? If packets arriving to my laptop have ISP information, then I’m still screwed no matter if I have VPN or 2 routers or whatever. Right?
I don’t get it. Does your company have software that can trace your outgoing data after its left your computer?
No, software is on laptop so I assume it can track where packet is going to and where it came from. Because I am no expert but I assume ISP information is in the packet that leave/are received
I can’t speak for all ISP but attaching processing data to inbound and outbound data is both time consuming (latency/ping), and bloody expensive. The most probable way that your job is monitoring your location is through connection, as in which ISP connects to the server (internal/extrernal) and what is the registered geo location of said client of ISP
Mmm ok thank you, one more thing
Do incoming packets (incoming to my laptop) have information of the ISP they are going to? I know they have destination IP, but I would imagine at some point, the packets need to know how to reach ISP, the thing I don’t know is at which point this info is available.
ISP only facilitates the transfer of data from A to B. The majority of direction is from DNS networks