Curiosity is very important, but it is not the most important quality a person can have in all contexts. Wisdom comes to mind as one that is more important sometimes.
Wisdom is knowing stuff. Politics is something else.
Unfortunately, you gotta have the wisdom to recognize the politics and thereby protect yourself. To know when it's just not worth it. Sad but true
Knowledge is knowing stuff wisdom is knowing when and when not to apply that knowledge.
Do you want staff to be curious enough to... Let's see... Run queries on your customer database to find out their friends' account balances?
Why did you immediately jump to a malicious scenario? Is that what you imagine curious people do?
No. My point is that curiosity is valuable, but so is integrity. The scenario I presented is around the same level of malicious as pen testing a competitor's new credit card API. Specifically, both are potentially criminal acts of illegal computer access (by current laws in the US), and both have negligible impact on their victims.
You can be curious without being reckless.
Agreed, use a trusted VPN.
I'm sure you meant it in jest, but yeah, if you are going to do something illegal at least try to cover your tracks. Naivety is not a virtue.