Want to swap my company SSD with my own SSD

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Fapdda

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So I have a Dell Latitude 7410 from my company and it is a decent laptop, but because of company restrictions I can't use my fingerprint reader or my IR sensor and have to deal with drive encryption as well. My company's policy is pretty chill with using personal laptops, they kind of encourage it. So I was wondering whether I can swap the company's SSD with my own(its a spare 970 evo) and not deal with all the problems listed above.
The only doubt I have is when I install the new SSD will the drive encryption get installed automatically or will it just be present in my company's SSD?
Also will my company get to know I have installed my own SSD or the fact that I'm not logging in my company's SSD?
 
Fapdda said:
So I have a Dell Latitude 7410 from my company and it is a decent laptop, but because of company restrictions I can't use my fingerprint reader or my IR sensor and have to deal with drive encryption as well. My company's policy is pretty chill with using personal laptops, they kind of encourage it. So I was wondering whether I can swap the company's SSD with my own(its a spare 970 evo) and not deal with all the problems listed above.
The only doubt I have is when I install the new SSD will the drive encryption get installed automatically or will it just be present in my company's SSD?
Also will my company get to know I have installed my own SSD or the fact that I'm not logging in my company's SSD?
Click to expand...
So you want to replace the original Hard drive with a SSD that you own, install a fresh operating system and continue to work on the laptop? Chances are you will get fired. Better not do it without prior written permission from your companies IT department. Don't assume they encourage it. They wouldn't enforce security if they encouraged tinkering. Most probably they will have softwares running in the background which would be reporting back to their servers and probably report a change in hardware too.
 
Fapdda said:
So I have a Dell Latitude 7410 from my company and it is a decent laptop, but because of company restrictions I can't use my fingerprint reader or my IR sensor and have to deal with drive encryption as well. My company's policy is pretty chill with using personal laptops, they kind of encourage it. So I was wondering whether I can swap the company's SSD with my own(its a spare 970 evo) and not deal with all the problems listed above.
The only doubt I have is when I install the new SSD will the drive encryption get installed automatically or will it just be present in my company's SSD?
Also will my company get to know I have installed my own SSD or the fact that I'm not logging in my company's SSD?
Click to expand...

I am surprised what company will allow an employee to remove the HDD / SSD of company laptop and swap with personal. Here if I insert a USB, the system logs it. I highly doubt you can do that and also the encryption is there for a reason. My office laptop too has bitlocker installed. Better ask the IT guys and take permission in writing which I highly doubt will even happen.
 
if the drive is cloned the windows custom built image security image signature will still fail. Plus it is strictly against many comapnies policies to mess with hardware. i am sure your manager will call you and give a very stern warning if you do this.
 
fastapifastdisks said:
if the drive is cloned the windows custom built image security image signature will still fail. Plus it is strictly against many comapnies policies to mess with hardware. i am sure your manager will call you and give a very stern warning if you do this.
Click to expand...
Warning? I am sure if I attempted anything like this, I would be fired.
 
raksrules said:
Warning? I am sure if I attempted anything like this, I would be fired.
Click to expand...
He mentioned his employer is chill but again he mentioned about his personal laptop so unsure if it needs to be done on personal or office laptop.

@Fapdda clear the air though risk is on you as anything like this and you are bound to get fired or be ready to face IT security compliance investigations for tampering cos asset.
Better buy ssd and get it cloned/installed by local co. IT guy.

I'm from compliance and initially last yr during lockdown we received similar requests for memory/hdd/ssd/device upgrades so whatever it may be it should be thoroughly conveyed to the IT dept. incl. your immediate manager and then take it further.

Our employees use personal laptops for work as it was not possible to allocate fresh assets to each of them however company had to format the entire laptop and install its os/apps/vpn etc so as to be complaint.
Other like me use their own laptops the way they want. We only have vpn configured thats it. Rest its our own responsibility and accountability.
 
Last edited:
raksrules said:
Warning? I am sure if I attempted anything like this, I would be fired.
Click to expand...
yup even my employer is quite chill with people using laptop for personal work many even watch netflix etc i know people who only use company laptop and dont even have a personal machine but changing hardware is strict no go where everything so so chill. if even as much as the usb chip of the laptop is replaced the whole os has to be rebuild otherwise it wont let anyone log into the company network. And i do suppor their stance because lot of people do illegal things. code is worth more than gold these days.
 
nRiTeCh said:
Encryption remain intact if you clone the drive as is on the newer ones.
Click to expand...
I'm not looking to clone, I'll install a fresh OS in a different ssd.

vaibhavyagnik said:
So you want to replace the original Hard drive with a SSD that you own, install a fresh operating system and continue to work on the laptop? Chances are you will get fired. Better not do it without prior written permission from your companies IT department. Don't assume they encourage it. They wouldn't enforce security if they encouraged tinkering. Most probably they will have softwares running in the background which would be reporting back to their servers and probably report a change in hardware too.
Click to expand...
For a long time they did ask us to work on our own personal laptops, are you sure they can know about hardware changes?

raksrules said:
I am surprised what company will allow an employee to remove the HDD / SSD of company laptop and swap with personal. Here if I insert a USB, the system logs it. I highly doubt you can do that and also the encryption is there for a reason. My office laptop too has bitlocker installed. Better ask the IT guys and take permission in writing which I highly doubt will even happen.
Click to expand...
How do you know it gets logged?

fastapifastdisks said:
if the drive is cloned the windows custom built image security image signature will still fail. Plus it is strictly against many comapnies policies to mess with hardware. i am sure your manager will call you and give a very stern warning if you do this.
Click to expand...
Again, not planning to clone, just installing a new SSD altogether.

nRiTeCh said:
He mentioned his employer is chill but again he mentioned about his personal laptop so unsure if it needs to be done on personal or office laptop.

@Fapdda clear the air though risk is on you as anything like this and you are bound to get fired or be ready to face IT security compliance investigations for tampering cos asset.
Better buy ssd and get it cloned/installed by local co. IT guy.

I'm from compliance and initially last yr during lockdown we received similar requests for memory/hdd/ssd/device upgrades so whatever it may be it should be thoroughly conveyed to the IT dept. incl. your immediate manager and then take it further.

Our employees use personal laptops for work as it was not possible to allocate fresh assets to each of them however company had to format the entire laptop and install its os/apps/vpn etc so as to be complaint.
Other like me use their own laptops the way they want. We only have vpn configured thats it. Rest its our own responsibility and accountability.
Click to expand...
See, I'm not planning to clone. I'll install a new SSD, with a new OS. I don't do much on my machine anyway. 99% of my job is done on a VM which is why personal laptops are cool with my company, but its a big MNC so they probably have stricter guidelines than I think and this idea sounds like a stupid one now.

What I was worried about whether they'll get to know any hardware changes(swapping the SSD) made and if yes, how?
 
Fapdda said:
What I was worried about whether they'll get to know any hardware changes(swapping the SSD) made and if yes, how?
Click to expand...

If you swap out the hardisk, the encryption does not come back. But if they are tying your login to a hardware id, then it will trigger an alert. They could also make the laptop not boot from anything else but a particular harddisk. If you change that, your system might not boot. Depends on what level of logging/security your company has.
 
soulweaver said:
If you swap out the hardisk, the encryption does not come back. But if they are tying your login to a hardware id, then it will trigger an alert. They could also make the laptop not boot from anything else but a particular harddisk. If you change that, your system might not boot. Depends on what level of logging/security your company has.
Click to expand...
They are not tying to any hardware ID I think, just a few days ago my motherboard fried and I had to use my personal laptop and it was absolutely no issue from them, they did ask me to collect a different laptop from the office but I was out of station so I couldn't do it.

raksrules said:
I literally get a popup saying this information has been logged. It is similar to accessing facebook when connected to office vpn and the same is blocked and you get information that the activity has been logged.
Click to expand...
The only thing I've noticed is when I insert a USB drive, it says the drive is not encrypted, should we do it? And I do have the option to select no.
 
Fapdda said:
I'm not looking to clone, I'll install a fresh OS in a different ssd.


For a long time they did ask us to work on our own personal laptops, are you sure they can know about hardware changes?


How do you know it gets logged?


Again, not planning to clone, just installing a new SSD altogether.


See, I'm not planning to clone. I'll install a new SSD, with a new OS. I don't do much on my machine anyway. 99% of my job is done on a VM which is why personal laptops are cool with my company, but its a big MNC so they probably have stricter guidelines than I think and this idea sounds like a stupid one now.

What I was worried about whether they'll get to know any hardware changes(swapping the SSD) made and if yes, how?
Click to expand...
your svm will stop working due to bios secure boot settings failing as the hardware id etc of everything is computed to make a unique signature to give to the os,so even if os boots you wont be able to log into company vpn etc. and even if you are able to login use normally ever if a security incident happens you will be sued till you are broke in court. dont do these things bro. IT can see everything.
 
Why would you even want to do this? If you think you're not as efficient as you could be due to the slow hardware, complain to them. It's their duty to provide you with the hardware required to let you perform your duties as per your potential.
You're getting paid either way if your do your work in 1 day or 3 days due to the slow hardware. If your manager/boss makes a fuss about it just ask for a better system/upgrade (only if your think and know your can perform better with it).

Generally, you're not allowed to tinker at all with company assets on your own.
 
Fapdda said:
What I was worried about whether they'll get to know any hardware changes(swapping the SSD) made and if yes, how?
Click to expand...
It depends if they have installed some/specific agents on your laptop/machine. Agents keep a track of hardware info. and if any changes, gets reflected to the back end repository. Though it doesn't matter but it depends from co - co. memory/hdd no one cares but if you plug-in in usb/pen drive storage then alert might get triggered. This is at least whats common across mncs. This is to ensure data integrity and safety and prevention of tampering. In my ex. co. even if we plugged in charging cable within few mins we used to receive personal alert notification and we have to provide justification else internet used to get barred etc.
 
nRiTeCh said:
It depends if they have installed some/specific agents on your laptop/machine. Agents keep a track of hardware info. and if any changes, gets reflected to the back end repository. Though it doesn't matter but it depends from co - co. memory/hdd no one cares but if you plug-in in usb/pen drive storage then alert might get triggered. This is at least whats common across mncs. This is to ensure data integrity and safety and prevention of tampering. In my ex. co. even if we plugged in charging cable within few mins we used to receive personal alert notification and we have to provide justification else internet used to get barred etc.
Click to expand...

In my previous company, anything plugged into USB like USB pen drive or even charging cable, it would sort of freeze the system, as in clicking windows explorer or C:\ etc wont open and throw an error, basically clicking anything gives error popup.
 
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