I have a question on iCloud and a company issued work computer. For my personal computer, I had a late 2017 13 inch MacBook Pro. For some reason, It completely died in mid 2020. The Apple store said the logic board was fried. No way to boot it at all. I never left it plugged in for excessive long periods of time, spilled anything on it, or dropped it. It was either unfixable or insanely expensive for a logic board replacement so I left it alone. I knew at that point what we now know as the 2021 M1 Pro 14 inch model was hopefully coming soon. At the around the same time or before during mid 2020, my work had issued me a similar 13 inch MacBook Pro. It was brand new and they allowed me to set it up with signing into all my Apple Accounts. I had been using it for the last year. What I honestly didn't know that I was signed into my iCloud account. I never paid too much attention to iCloud. I was fully using it for work but at the same time had Messages, Music, Photos linked to my Apple ID up and running.
Well, the 2021 14 inch finally came out and I was ready to buy my own personal computer again. I finally bought one and it happened to coincide with the time I was leaving my current company and put in my notice. The only thing I did was turn on my new 2021 personal 14 inch and set it up. I logged into my Apple ID account in the setup process. It's pretty much the next step right after you put it onto a WiFi network in the setup process. As the computer finally came up, my Messages, Photos, Music all were synced up. I then noticed that in Finder, some folders from my work computer folders were now appearing on my new personal 14 inch. I then realized that iCloud did this. I did not hook up a USB stick or do any file transfer in any other way via a target mode cable, airdrop, etc. I then figured out that I should probably find a way to turn this off so my work computer doesn't push the files into the cloud and I was going to log out of everything in a week or so when I turned in. I went to my work computer and found the one checkbox that I needed to uncheck for iCloud. The computer then said it would take the files off iCloud and download them locally to the work MacBook Pro. I did that and I think I unlinked it. The files were there locally as the Finder information showed a path on the Macintosh HD on the work computer. I went to bed for the evening and early in the morning when I opened up my work computer to start my day, I had the grey screen where my work computer was locked out and I needed to contact IT immediately. They said I needed to come into the office. I went right away and when I got there, they said I breached security by transferring about 50 files form y work computer. To be honest, the folder had many about 30 files that were work related and they were some PDFs that I downloaded from common websites for work research. The other files were personal like some resume and cover letters. I guess that doesn't really matter for what the content was in this context. I wouldn't even have had the personal files on a work computer if my other computer did not die. We worked exclusively off the Google suite, so everything truly work related or sensitive was really not stored on the computer anyway. Well, the IT guy just took my computer at the front door along with my badge and closed the door without anything else to say. That was t for me at that job. I never got to talk to HR or hear anything from them about what was going on. Granted I was starting my new job the following week, I didn't really try more than once to reach out by email to see what was actually happening. I provided the same explanation as above as what I thought happened. Nobody at that company got back to me to confirm what the issue was. If I was not starting a new job, I probably would have tried to get some legal help about the way this was handled, understand if I was in any trouble, and question if this is justifiable as termination.
The question I have is did I truly do something wrong by singing into my Apple accounts on the work computer they provided me? They did say it could be used for all things in the Apple ecosystem. Nothing was restricted on it in that way. They didn't specifically say to look to make sure iCloud was not set up or it was off limits. I didn't even really notice I was using it. If iCloud was truly what triggered them noticing something was up, shouldn't they have known sooner though the MDM for the last year of use? Did me setting up a new computer somehow raise a red flag? If the files were already on iCloud, how could I have actually transferred anything directly form the work computer at that time of setup? The work computer wasn't even open at the time. Or was it when I figured it out and turned off iCloud on the work computer and it then download the files to the computer? That really doesn't make sense to me either as why a download would raise a flag. Finally, isn't this just big a hole in the IT department for even allowing us to sign in to all aspects of our Apple accounts? Should they have restricted it from the start and blocked us from checking the Apple ID or iCloud box in the MDM? Honestly I am not some expert in these setups or iCloud where I was really trying to steal anything. I'm just frustrated that after a positive time at the company and leaving on good terms it ended this way. I'm also worried they may be take it to some kind of legal action in the future if they really wanted to prove a point. I do hope I would be somewhat in the clear and it would then really expose a security flaw in the way they set up the MDM or issue their computers. Any thoughts are much appreciated!
Well, the 2021 14 inch finally came out and I was ready to buy my own personal computer again. I finally bought one and it happened to coincide with the time I was leaving my current company and put in my notice. The only thing I did was turn on my new 2021 personal 14 inch and set it up. I logged into my Apple ID account in the setup process. It's pretty much the next step right after you put it onto a WiFi network in the setup process. As the computer finally came up, my Messages, Photos, Music all were synced up. I then noticed that in Finder, some folders from my work computer folders were now appearing on my new personal 14 inch. I then realized that iCloud did this. I did not hook up a USB stick or do any file transfer in any other way via a target mode cable, airdrop, etc. I then figured out that I should probably find a way to turn this off so my work computer doesn't push the files into the cloud and I was going to log out of everything in a week or so when I turned in. I went to my work computer and found the one checkbox that I needed to uncheck for iCloud. The computer then said it would take the files off iCloud and download them locally to the work MacBook Pro. I did that and I think I unlinked it. The files were there locally as the Finder information showed a path on the Macintosh HD on the work computer. I went to bed for the evening and early in the morning when I opened up my work computer to start my day, I had the grey screen where my work computer was locked out and I needed to contact IT immediately. They said I needed to come into the office. I went right away and when I got there, they said I breached security by transferring about 50 files form y work computer. To be honest, the folder had many about 30 files that were work related and they were some PDFs that I downloaded from common websites for work research. The other files were personal like some resume and cover letters. I guess that doesn't really matter for what the content was in this context. I wouldn't even have had the personal files on a work computer if my other computer did not die. We worked exclusively off the Google suite, so everything truly work related or sensitive was really not stored on the computer anyway. Well, the IT guy just took my computer at the front door along with my badge and closed the door without anything else to say. That was t for me at that job. I never got to talk to HR or hear anything from them about what was going on. Granted I was starting my new job the following week, I didn't really try more than once to reach out by email to see what was actually happening. I provided the same explanation as above as what I thought happened. Nobody at that company got back to me to confirm what the issue was. If I was not starting a new job, I probably would have tried to get some legal help about the way this was handled, understand if I was in any trouble, and question if this is justifiable as termination.
The question I have is did I truly do something wrong by singing into my Apple accounts on the work computer they provided me? They did say it could be used for all things in the Apple ecosystem. Nothing was restricted on it in that way. They didn't specifically say to look to make sure iCloud was not set up or it was off limits. I didn't even really notice I was using it. If iCloud was truly what triggered them noticing something was up, shouldn't they have known sooner though the MDM for the last year of use? Did me setting up a new computer somehow raise a red flag? If the files were already on iCloud, how could I have actually transferred anything directly form the work computer at that time of setup? The work computer wasn't even open at the time. Or was it when I figured it out and turned off iCloud on the work computer and it then download the files to the computer? That really doesn't make sense to me either as why a download would raise a flag. Finally, isn't this just big a hole in the IT department for even allowing us to sign in to all aspects of our Apple accounts? Should they have restricted it from the start and blocked us from checking the Apple ID or iCloud box in the MDM? Honestly I am not some expert in these setups or iCloud where I was really trying to steal anything. I'm just frustrated that after a positive time at the company and leaving on good terms it ended this way. I'm also worried they may be take it to some kind of legal action in the future if they really wanted to prove a point. I do hope I would be somewhat in the clear and it would then really expose a security flaw in the way they set up the MDM or issue their computers. Any thoughts are much appreciated!