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Workers’ Personal Internet Use Drains Bandwidth, Poses Liability

Nov. 4, 2008 — More than half of employees in the United States and the United Kingdom (UK) visit various social networking Web sites while at work, according to a new survey. What’s more, nearly three-quarters of U.S. workers and 80% of UK workers believe they should have full access to social networking sites for personal reasons.
 
 “While there are many strategic business reasons why employees in both countries are on social networking, news and streaming media sites, IT must be aware there are also security and regulatory risks associated with employee Internet use,” said Eric Lundbohm, vice president of marketing of 8e6 Technologies, which conducted the survey. “Proper Internet Use Policy education and effective monitoring tools are critical to solving these issues and keeping employees safe, compliant and on-task.”

Other survey findings:

• 63% of respondents access personal e-mail at work
• 51% of U.S. workers and 55% of U.K. workers check for updates online during big sporting events
• More than half of respondents said their company has an Internet Use Policy, but have not received formal training on it
• 85% of U.S. workers and 89% of U.K. workers believe their level of personal Internet use at work is acceptable
• 34% of U.S. workers and 35% of U.K. workers spend at least an hour or more each work day on personal Internet use
• More U.S. users have used peer-to-peer services to share video or music at work than their U.K. counterparts.
• The majority of those who use social networking to communicate with colleagues, prospects and clients are in the 18-24 age group.
• Users age 40-50 are aware of anonymous proxies used to get around Web filters at the same rate as the 18-24 group, yet about double the number of 18-24 users have used them to access blocked sites.
• 5% of U.S. workers and 3% of U.K. have been disciplined for Internet Use Policy violations.

More survey details can be found online at: www.8e6.com/US_UK_Survey_Results.

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