Hidden Dangers of Personal Computer Use During Work

Personal computer use during work has become a growing concern for nearly all businesses. Along with the security risks that escalate for the company, fixing issues, and employee distraction & wasted time increase costs for organizations.

Consider this: If you have 20 employees, each wasting an average of 1 hour/per day on non-work-related computer or cell phone use, that means the organization is paying for 100 hours per week of un-productive time.

That is 2 1/2 employee salaries per week!

Streaming non-work-related content slows down bandwidth for the entire network and other employees trying to get work completed.

Consider this: All internet accounts have a limit on the bandwidth that is allocated for each account. Even if just a handful of users are streaming music or videos during the day, they will slow down the productivity of all the other users in the organization that are trying to use online, work-related applications.

Accessing adult content or clicking on the wrong link through social media can often contain malicious content such as installing malware or spyware on computers that logs passwords and other personally identifiable information (PII).

This malware can wreak havoc in a company network and computer system, putting the company data at risk. Once it’s on the company network, it can spread easily to other devices and servers.

Un-authorized programs may create conflicts with other applications and peer-to-peer content can put the company at risk for Copyright Violations.

In most cases, it’s less about the actual content accessed and more about the threats that lie within the links, that are cause for organizations to worry.

So now that the risks are spelled out, how does an organization help curb these un-intentional threats?

Restrict or limit the risks with employee internet management software; only allowing specific users to access specific content or times when they can go online for non-work-related activities.

Advanced security services can help limit access to specific types of sites and social media and only allow Administrator level users the ability to install programs.

Have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) in place for responsible internet access and personal usage for company devices. Reach out to ClearCom IT for more info or help implementing these tips for your organization. 508-892-5555