My workplace just blocked Vivaldi
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I've been using Vivaldi on my work laptop for years with no issue when suddenly this week, Vivaldi keep crashing on me for no reason. Then I started getting these security pop-up saying that some contents from Vivaldi has been blocked. When I got in touch with help desk, I'm now told that Vivaldi has been blocked because it has no compliance certification. I work in a government organisation so if it's blocked for me, there will be many others that will also be blocked.
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Further information to this. I've questioned this decision and this was the response that I received back:
"Microsoft analyses a series of signals and information regarding applications and companies, including security and compliance of the application and the company developing the application, consolidating these signals into a scoring system between 1 and 10, with 10 indicating highest confidence in safety and security.
The web browser in question is not rated in the top 50% of this scale, nor does the company developing the application meet the base level of compliance that we ask of all our procured products."
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@cath1ynn Sad to say, i can not tell you more than this: These rules are set by your company and i do not know how they validate a security level of Vivaldi browser.
I guess they have installed some security tool on your PC which blocks Vivaldi.
Which Vivaldi version do you use?
How does such security pop-up look like?
Please create a screenshot from that area and upload here by dragging image file into end of reply field. -
@cath1ynn Hi, I'd be very interested to know the name of the microsoft product that analyses these "signals and information", as Vivaldi is discussing Microsoft's tactics with the European Union at the moment. Any information would be gratefully received.
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@brucelawson My guess it's more a case of:
"We don't know what Vivaldi is, and frankly we don't care so we just block it and serve the user some boilerplate excuse."It's FUD basically.
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@DoctorG this is what the security pop-up looks like.
I'm using the latest version of Vivaldi. This issue started happening this week where Vivaldi would keep crashing on me randomly. Then from 2 days ago, I started getting this pop-up. Now, even though Vivaldi is still installed, it's pretty much unusable.
I should add that I'm based in Australia.
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@cath1ynn That popup shows that your IT administrator has blocked Vivaldi.
Please talk to the IT administrator of your company and ask to allow use of Vivaldi on the PC.Nothing more we can do for help.
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I've requested a security review of Vivaldi citing 5 different independent (unbiased) reviews in the last 2 years that have all said that Vivaldi has good security and privacy protection. Let's see what they come back with.
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I got more info from the IT manager. It's about being able to push out security settings org wide. Because Vivaldi currently doesn't support that, so it got put into quarantine.
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@cath1ynn
Hi, admins work as little as possible, I did the same some Years ago.
Maybe you can try to install Vivaldi as Standalone install.
This can even run from a USB stick, install it there at home.
You have to export your passwords to the stick, it doesn't work on a different Windows system.
But I fear this will not work either, if the admins know there business.
EDIT: Rename vivaldi.exe in chrome or edge.exe, depends which is default on your org.
But that is definitely not allowed. -
@mib2berlin no luck there. Our IT already blocked USB devices long ago
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@cath1ynn
Ha, zip the install folder and up it to a cloud, download, unzip.
This will definitely cause trouble.
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@Pathduck This is most likely.
I had this when trying to use Vivaldi to connect as an IMAP mail client. IT said "the policy is only the official outlook.com web interface / outlook app is allowed".
My response was "OK, so you're going to block all my linux using colleagues that have Mozilla thunderbird, then? That's what the policy says, right?".
They unblocked vivaldi after that.
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So apparently Vivaldi scored less than 5 in Microsoft's new secure score because according to Microsoft Vivaldi had no compliance with any of the things that they grade on. Perhaps worth looking into that Vivaldi team.
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@cath1ynn @cath1ynn I can see that as a reason if they really lock down all browsing.
Just a thought on another possible reason it might be frowned upon is the fact that in Windows, Vivaldi doesn't install to a central location.
Most apps install machine-wide, like in C:\Program Files\MS Office, and your personal settings go into your user profile, C:\Users\cath1ynn...
Unfortunately some apps install per-user, and instead go directly into your user profile.As a sysadmin, these apps can often be a royal pain in the butt for software inventory and updates, as well as antivirus considerations.
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@Danger1081 Vivaldi lets you chose if you are installing for everyone or per user, so it is up to the user during installation.
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@Danger1081 said in My workplace just blocked Vivaldi:
As a sysadmin, these apps can often be a royal pain
Well, it is your admin policy if you allow users to install a app in Windows user space.
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@brucelawson I had the same issue with Crowdstrike blocking Vivaldi... Since upgrade to Windows 11. I can't have any more details...
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@cath1ynn Companies have the right to block whatever they want on work pcs. My former company literally blocked everything that was not work related. Shrug.
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@brucelawson Forget it. For my case, it was Windhawk which makes Crowdstrike Falcon strike, it was indirect.
I guess Microsoft really don't want us to have a vertical windows bar...So if anybody has the same issue and is using Windhawk, he can try uninstalling it beforehand.
