Cyberslackers

Problems are caused by cyberslackers

It’s seems like an ordinary Wednesday morning a brief glance across the office floor the team look busy beavering away ..... or are they? How many managers and employers are really aware of what their employees are really up to? Rachael your receptionist is gossiping in a chat room about what Roger the Customer Service Advisor really got up to last night, Roger is madly placing bids for a pair of vintage Nike on ebay. Helen is booking her summer holiday, Mike is downloading a film for the kids to watch this evening and Simon has just arranged a date for Saturday night with a woman he met recently on a dating site.

Despite these seeming like harmless activities, on average employees are spending 2.5 hours a day wasting time on the internet otherwise known as cyberslacking. There are even dedicated sites for today’s cyberslackers offering loafing tips and tools, games and entertainment to pass the time. They even go as far as installing a ‘Panic Button’ in case a manager should walk by, the site instantly redirects the user to a ‘work friendly site’.

What problems are caused by cyberslackers?

At a bare minimum cyberslacking causes loss in productivity and reduced bandwidth, slowing your computer network to a holt. But if this isn’t enough to send your pulse racing, how about the introduction of malicious viruses and spyware or installation of unlicensed software and downloads of offensive materials which can lead to not only great financial losses but also legal litigation to boot! The fact is as an employer you own the company network and remain liable for any defamatory actions of your employees.

So how can Cyberslacking be managed effectively?

• Make sure you have a Staff Internet Policy that includes clear guidelines on permissible and prohibited uses, penalties for violation of the policy. A copy of the policy should be signed by each of your employees. Seek professional advice on drafting policies and making changes to staff contracts.
• Monitor employees internet use, but ensure this complies with the Data Protection Act
• Use internet content filters to block offensive websites and in appropriate content
• Restrict employees access to the internet either with web browsers or email
• Add an internet kiosk in your lunch room, a computer dedicated to private-usage only and ban private use on business computers
• Make sure someone is responsible for installing legitimate software on all computers and make it policy not to install anything else

While cyberslacking is quite often thought of as being "harmless" or "no big problem" the truth of the matter is this is a huge deal and business owners need to be aware of the risks. If someone inadvertently lets in an infection or mistakenly allows the installation of a rogue program on their home PC the cost of fixing the infected machine could run into hundreds of pounds. However if your work network is infected the potential financial loss could be catastrophic, running into the thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pounds!

IT Manager for ESET UK Mark James says ‘It's not that your IT Manager wants to stop you going onto Facebook or stop you winning that awesome eBay auction, it is our job to protect the network from the hundreds and thousands of attacks just waiting out there to get in, after all if the network is down long enough and too much money is lost its your job that’s on the line.’