World Cup fevor reaching businesses?

While the biggest football tournament on earth is great news for me, and for football fans all over the world, business’s may be less excited. With matches readily available to watch over the internet and times clashing with working hours, the number of unaffected businesses will be very small indeed.

Effective internet management plays a large part in negating this but the approach taken will very much vary from business to business. Some will opt to block their staff from websites they feel will be counter productive while others will allow full access and just keep track of how much time (and bandwidth) is spent following the World Cup. Then, of course, there is everything inbetween.

Naturally, the approach to take depends entirely on the type of company, the workplace environment, and the damage that following personal interests during working hours could have on the business.

Personally, I’m an advocate of the middle ground in most cases. If employees work hard and put in the extra mile, they should be rewarded and given an element of freedom to manage their personal lives at work. However, with a large proportaion of websites designed to immerse the viewer and keep them browsing, there is a fine line to be drawn. 

The internet allows for the work/home lives to merge considerably and this flexibility can enhance the morale of the staff and actually increase productivity. On the other hand, it can (and often will) impair productivity and very quickly contribute to an office environment operating far below it’s potential.

Suprisingly, bandwidth use is something often overlooked when it comes to web restriction or monitoring and is a key element. Streaming or downloading video places a considerable strain on company networks as corporate bandwidth limits are met or exceeded. Internet access across the business will slow down, emails will take longer to send and recieve, and vital day to day process will be affected as a result.

What I am in no doubt of is that internet activity needs to be monitored and (in most companies) some websites need to be blocked. Employers and managers need to be aware when someone is taking advantage of resources to quickly prevent the problem becoming more of an issue.

Facebook Lite given the ‘Thumbs Down’ by Big Brother

Facebook Lite, a basic version of the popular social-networking website for people with poor internet connections, has shut down.

Initially launched in September 2009, Facebook Lite targeted people with poor connectivity and only offered basic functions.

Sophy Silver from Facebook told Web User: “Thanks to everyone who tried out Facebook Lite. We’re no longer supporting it, but learned a lot from the test of a slimmed-down site.”

The company were reluctant to give any further information on the closure.

Those endeared to Facebook Lite have made their disappointment public on Lite’s page, with one such supporter claiming  ”It was the first good thing Facebook’s done in over a year.”

Facebook accounted for 6.22 per cent of visits to all websites from UK users during the last week of March, according to web-monitoring company Hitwise.

£500,000 fine for Data Loss!

A new rule, approved by the Secretary of State for Justice and expected to come into force on 6th April 2010, will enable The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to issue fines of up to £500,000 for serious data security breaches.

This new power is in no doubt a reaction to several high profile data losses from large organisations including the DVLA and the Ministry of Defence.

With an enormous amounts of personal data stored and processed online, Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, said he hoped the penalty would encourage companies to comply more closely with the Data Protection Act.

“These penalties are designed to act as a deterrent,” he said in an official press statement.

“I remain committed to working with voluntary, public and private bodies to help them stick to the rules and comply with the Act. But I will not hesitate to use these tough new sanctions for the most serious cases where organisations disregard the law.”

Under the most recent Act of 1998, data can only be used for the purposes for which it is collected and cannot be given to others without the consent of the individual.

Report shows employees to steal data

According to the ‘the global recession and its effect on work ethics’ survey by Cyber-Ark, 48 percent of respondents admitted that they would take company information with them if they were dismissed tomorrow.

A third of workers would steal data to help a friend get a job while 13 per cent would take access and password codes.

Of the respondents, 39 percent would download company information if they found that their job was at risk and 25 percent said that the recession has meant that they feel less loyal towards their employer. Alarmingly, 13 per cent would take access and password codes to allow access to the network once they’ve left the company and continue downloading information.

Cyber-Ark claimed that the recession is creating camaraderie amongst workforces, at the expense of their employers as 41 per cent confessed to have already taken sensitive data with them to their new position, whilst a third would pass on company information if it proved useful in getting friends or family a job.

The most desired information was customer and contact details for 29 per cent of respondents, then 18 per cent said that they would steal plans and proposals. Eleven per cent would take product information.

If we are to take anything out of this report, it is that organisations need to be open to make improvements to how they control and monitor access to vital business systems, even by those at the highest levels.

Hacker threat second to employee mistakes

New research from IDC and security vendor RSA, that included 400 top level executives, revealed that organisations are more likely to suffer from accidental data security leaks than malicious insider attacks.

The research shows that the accidental data leaks often cause more damage than insider attacks; giving reason to doubt the traditional assumption that theft is the highest cause. Most security leaks are accidents that occur simply when employees do not follow correct security protocol or misuse information accidentally.

The firms that participated in the poll reported that accidental data loss accounted for 6,244 of incidents; unauthorized people receiving privileged access to data resulted in 5.794 incidents of risk, and malware attacks that came from within the firms accounted for 5,830 incidents.

Ealing council pay £500,000 for infected USB stick

Web Policies: Everyone needs to Know!

It is increasingly important for companies to effectively communicate their web at work policy to everyone in the organisation to ensure safe and productive browsing and to avoid confusion.

Firms have generally become more relaxed about the personal use of IT at work, as the costs of supplying internet and PCs have come down. They should be reasonable in setting rules and communicate them effectively to employees, Netsafe executive director Martin Cocker says.

“Many companies are saying, `Yes, you can use Trade Me, but only in your lunch break’.”

However, Sarah Trotman, managing director of business network Bizzone, says businesses have become stricter about employees using social networking sites at work.

Firms are often finding that employees are “twittering” or blogging on behalf of the business without their knowledge, and employees are often more clued up about social networking sites and the web than business owners.

“It has become more challenging to control the amount of information going out about their own business.”

Mr Cocker says surveys have shown small and medium-sized businesses often have incomplete IT policies and security.

This was highlighted by the Safe Air email controversy. An employee at the Woodbourne aviation engineering firm was dismissed for sending 425 lewd emails at work over a six-month period, but the Employment Relations Authority ordered Safe Air to reinstate the worker, since he was unclear about acceptable standards for IT use.  

Web socialising at work reduces output

Facebook at work amounts to social “not-working”, according to a new survey that shows employee productivity is hit by people socialising on the internet during office hours.

A new study by Boston IT advisory firm, Nucleus Research found that, companies that allow users to access Facebook in the workplace lose an average 1.5% in total worker productivity.

Nearly half of employees in the recent social net-working study use Facebook during work hours some as much as two hours per day. The average worker uses it for 15 minutes a day, and most couldn’t come up with a legitimate “business reason” for logging on.

The survey of 237 employees also showed that 77% of workers who have a Facebook account use it during work hours. And “some” employees use the social networking site as much as two hours a day at work, the study found.

Do you think blocking social networking sites is a good idea?

To restrict Facebook access at work see BrowseControl. Click here for a free trial or feel free to contact us to discuss your requirements.

Mixed Messages from Facebook

A recent study named “The Cost of Social Notworking”, examined specific details about how office workers use the immensely popular Facebook. And it reveals that some 77% of those workers surveyed had an account. Of those people, 66% accessed their profiles while at work, with some 6% exclusively doing so while on company time. That should raise alarm bells in many an employer’s minds, particularly when you learn that 87% of Facebook-using employees can’t come up with a legitimate work-related reason for visiting the site, and the average access time is 15 minutes. For a small company of 200 workers that fifteen minutes multiplies up to 50 working hours (one whole man week) lost to Facebook each and every day.

The knock-on effects on revenue loss are incalculable because they vary with the workload of each employee and the fact that the business model is different for every company. Although difficult to accurately measure, off these figures the money lost throughout the US and Europe concerned is likely to tally up to billions of lost dollars per day.

Some might say that in the current financial climate, Facebook could well be portrayed as The Great Downturn Facilitator.

Others see Facebook in an entirely different light altogether, and take the view that Facebook actually contributes to increasing their staff’s office productivity. After all, accessing Facebook is all about learning what your friends are up to and playing casual games: Both of these could be viewed as bolstering an office worker’s cheerfulness levels and thus resulting in a more positive working environment.

What do you think?

Read how BrowseControl can restrict inappropriate web browsing here. Alternatively, to discuss your requirements please feel free to contact us.

Supermarket Chain Freezes Internet Access

Every company has their own way of dealing with internet abuse in the workplace and their own methodology to keep repeat offences low.

One Kansas City operator of 28 supermarkets and pharmacies, Balls Food, seem to have hit upon the ideal model for them.  Their stores are the very model of how a network – and its users – should behave. Not that the users really ever had a choice.

Balls Food’s remarkable network usage, documented in an audit performed recently by Networks Unlimited, is the product of restrictive policies that grant Internet access to employees on a case-by-case and site-by-site basis.

“I’m relieved at the audit results,” says CFO Mike Beal, who stands firmly behind the policy.

Harry Segal, president of Networks Unlimited and a veteran of dozens of usage audits was equally surprised. “These results are unusually good.”

Usage audits look for exposure in four areas: productivity loss, legal liability, bandwidth consumption and data security.

Balls Food did well in all four. Most users can’t get to shopping, auction or sports websites, so there’s little lost productivity. Likewise, the inability to access objectionable content minimises legal exposure. Unable to connect to Internet radio streams or download multimedia files, bandwidth is preserved. Finally, spyware, Trojans, viruses and keystroke loggers are kept out through aggressive e-mail filtering and web download prohibitions, assuring the security of sensitive data.

“If we had an open Internet policy, our problems would be much worse,” says Lance Fischer, Balls Food’s network systems manager. “Our policies and practices are well-established, known by every employee with a computer and strictly enforced”. 

 What internet policies work for you?

Read how BrowseControl can restrict inappropriate web browsing here. Alternatively, to discuss your requirements please feel free to contact us.