Unauthorized use of the Internet during work hours is a huge concern for many companies. It is virtually impossible for any company to use computers without having them connected to the Internet in some way. This connection opens several issues for resource management, security threats, and payroll. If a company employee is spending the majority of the work day online chatting, reading, or even playing games in social networking forums then they are costing the company money rather than making the company money. All of these things need to be taken into consideration when placing Internet usage and surveillance guidelines within the workplace.
Many security threats within the companies computer infrastructure can be avoided easily by putting an Internet usage policy and security locks in place. It seems silly to have to to do this in an adult work environment but it is necessary. Chat programs, rooms, forums, and other social networking software programs do not always uphold the level of security that companies should have. A simple solution to this issue is to set up safeguards on the system that block messaging programs or certain aspects of the programs.
A new security issue that business owners are having to take notice of are social networking sites. These sites have built in chat forums and appear to be a regular web page on Internet browser tabs. These sites allow people to keep others updated on what they are doing, emotions, or issues that they want to express. Often times employees view these sites as a private domain and may forget that they can be easily found. There have been several businesses to loose business or future employees based solely on what one employee said on their social network site. An easy way to avoid this is to mark a preference in the companies Internet browser options to ban access to these sites.
Surveillance and guidelines are often times necessary. These security methods can be implemented through protocols already found within the preferences of existing browser programs or the computer itself. This makes security free for the owner.