Are your employees making your business sick?
Some employees download family photos. Some ladies shop online during their lunch breaks. What’s wrong with this image? The CEO catches up on his Facebook account through his company BlackBerry. If they are using company computers or any company network system, they are putting the company and its bottom line in the crosshairs of harm. The bottom line is this: your employees may be making your business sick.
Why should companies be concerned when it comes to their employees using social media at work? What’s wrong with sending personal emails at work? First of all, you are stealing company time to perform personal activities while you are on the company clock.
The proliferation of valuable data theft is at an all-time high this week with the announcement of the Sony PlayStation Network major data breach. This data theft affected approximately 77 million customers worldwide. Sony asks all users to rigorously examine all credit card and bank draft records immediately.
Nobody can assume that the information is private. Information reaches the Internet, it is there forever and cannot be retrieved. Silly pictures that were posted on a website 10 years ago are still out there somewhere. Smart employers can research a candidate’s background through Google. With the advent of major print newspapers now online, everyone’s privacy is up in the air.
Companies must be very concerned about the security of social networks and must have strict compliance by employees of the use of social networks in the workplace. One mistake can wreak havoc on a company’s customer base, thus causing great embarrassment and costly repairs. By using an unsecured site, for example, an unwitting employee may accidentally trigger a bug or virus on the network system causing a “phishing attack” to all employees and customers before it is detected and protected.
Today, most companies use firewalls to keep social networking applications like Facebook, YouTube, Internet browsing, and online shopping out of the workplace. If it is not available to the employee, he is less likely to be tempted. Traditional web-based antiviral spyware is good, but it’s not perfect. Some of the best networks have been intercepted by fake antiviral spyware, spinning their cocoon of information and inflicting pain on their prey.
A good rule of thumb to start with is to restrict access to social networking sites in the workplace. This can be based on web addresses, times of day, or even people with access. Strict policies should be in place to immediately terminate any employee, even if suspected of knowingly endangering the company through social media.
Business owners and IT employees should never trust that their firewall security system or antiviral spyware is doing its job 100% of the time.
Social networks can easily escape the security rules used for traditional risks. Some predator is waiting to infiltrate the company database with just a few mouse clicks.