You just can't use the Internet at work like you do at home ...
April 2004
Many of us find the Web invaluable at work, and if you're a modern office worker you might as well go home or go shopping if your Internet connection goes down.
Business in the modern age depends on email, and the slightest outage or blip in our precious connection to the online world generally has us screaming and tearing our hair out in frustration.
The halcyon days of the late 1990s saw us sending jokes via email at work and visiting cheeky websites without a care in the world about viruses, company bandwidth, hack attacks or legal ramifications. But these days corporations are a lot more careful about what they let their employees do online.
For the most part businesses do understand that some personal Internet usage during a lunch break or after work is acceptable. IT departments usually impose restrictions on certain sites and services, though--things like Hotmail, porn sites and peer to peer networks.
Software like Websense can automatically file sites into various categories, which Administrators can then restrict access to at different times (see a list at www.websense .com/products/about/database/categories .php). The software can even filter sites that have been cached by Google or other search engines.
Proxy servers can easily be configured to disallow things that might compromise a network's security. It's also easy for IT departments to install software which takes periodic screenshots of your monitor, so they can catch you if you're looking at porn or whiling away your day playing Yeti Sports ( www.yetisports.net).
Email
A study from the University of Nottingham suggests that a third of all employees spend 60 minutes a day clearing out spam. But to many companies, email chat between employees is also time wasting junk. The boss of Phones 4U has banned the use of internal email (external customers are still able to email the firm). John Caudwell claims his employees now have an impressive extra three hours a day in which "to concentrate fully".
Email is also used for personal correspondence during work hours. The use of personal Web based email is frowned upon in many large businesses because of the potential security risks. Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs staff are banned from using Hotmail, as are many civil servants. But many employees still use it, thinking (often incorrectly) that avoiding their desktop email client will protect them from any spying that might be conducted by the IT department. When Yahoo! was plugging its Web based email last year, it released a poll of 18,000 workers suggesting that 45 per cent of people suspected their colleagues were snooping on their emails during their lunch breaks. Sixty one per cent thought their IT departments spent their time scanning employees' emails.
Monitoring
So you think you're being watched at work? Are your keystrokes being logged? Is your every typed word scrutinised by the boss after you go home at night? Are your nerves on edge every time you click 'Send'?
"Certainly, if an IT department is monitoring your email, they're under obligation to tell you," says Natasha Staley, information security analyst at email filtering company MessageLabs ( www.messagelabs.com). The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act gives employers the right to monitor employees' email and Web usage, but this is balanced by the requirements of the Data Protection Act, which gives employees the right to see what information is stored about them and know why their communications may be monitored.
If your workplace hasn't made things clear in a staff handbook or on an intranet site, find out now. More about your rights at work can be found at the TUC's WorkSmart site ( www.worksmart.org.uk/rights /viewsubsection.php?sun=57).
Employee monitoring is seen as necessary by public companies and government agencies which don't want sensitive information leaked. The Information Commissioner's guidelines on monitoring at work ( www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk) recommend that employers inform workers that they may be held criminally liable "if they knowingly or recklessly disclose personal information outside their employer's policies and procedures". Ultimately, though, it's the company that will have to face the consequences if anything dodgy gets out, which is why they take whatever security precautions they can.
No company should come across as being draconian, Staley says, as this will have a detrimental effect on employee morale. "The odd email inviting people out to the pub after work isn't a big deal. Obviously, when personal use becomes excessive, or when the material being sent around is harmful or libellous, then it becomes an issue. But companies have to keep a fairly open culture."
An element of trust between employer and employee is a healthy necessity, Staley advises.
Peer to peer
The biggest potential waste of company resources is peer to peer networking. "Peer to peer is a massive risk," says Martino Corbelli, marketing manager of Web filtering company SurfControl ( www.surfcontrol.com). "It's used for two main reasons. One is the dissemination of copyrighted content, which could be films or music. The other is porn. Neither is desirable in a working environment."
With the Recording Industry of America targeting individual users of p2p networks with copyright lawsuits, Corbelli warns that it's possible for companies to be sued, too. "Companies have more money than individuals," he points out.
Up to 42 per cent of employees are sharing files using programs like Kazaa or Morpheus on corporate networks without their company's knowledge, estimates Blue Coat ( www.bluecoat.com), a company that provides filtering solutions using Web proxies.
Around 22 per cent of these workers considered p2p to be important for their job function, though. P2p as we know it may not present many business benefits, but grid (or distributed) computing is something large companies like Oracle and IBM are pushing to drive efficiency ( http://otmorade.com/tech /grid/index.html). Treating all computers in an enterprise as one networked 'grid' balances server loads and can prevent problems like databases crashing when many people try to access them at once. The ability for a network of computers to access large applications and files 'on tap' presents tantalising opportunities.
Content
If you accidentally open a spam mail and an explicit advertisement pops up, would you sue your company? What if a risque joke gets sent around which an employee finds offensive?
"An employer has to provide a safe working environment for their employees," says Corbelli, "and if they breach that then the employee could take action against the employer. It is a real risk, and many organisations try to mitigate against it by having something in place which takes out harmful content."
No solution is 100 per cent effective, but if companies have at least tried to protect themselves from harmful material, they will be generally be looked upon more favourably in a court of law than a company which has done nothing.
Ironically, though, organisations have been sued for filtering. Loudoun County Public Library in the US was barred from using filtering software after it was sued by local website operators whose pages had been blocked. They claimed the software the library was using violated their right to free speech under the First Amendment.
IM
Instant Messaging is a wonderful tool in the working environment, and IM traffic is predicted to surpass email traffic by 2006. But like email, it's also susceptible to being clogged with spam and viruses. As much as 5 to 8 per cent of enterprise IM is spam, estimates the Yankee Group.
Many companies are unaware whether public IM tools have been installed on employees' computers, but enterprise-based IM systems are widely used by companies like HSBC, Stanford University and Allied Van Lines.
In the US, scandals like the Enron accounting fiasco have led to corporate accountability regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This is leading global companies to monitor Internet use more stringently an audit by Hitachi Data Systems found that in the UK 62 per cent of companies now monitor email use and 22 per cent routinely monitor IM sessions. Most do not retain messages for more than three years.
Communication
The Internet is here to stay, and company culture has changed forever as a result. All organisations will have different Internet usage policies depending on job functionality, but we think there should always be an element of openness and flexibility evident. It's fair to restrict bandwidth swallowing activities like downloading MP3s, but if a company suddenly clamps down on Internet usage after a period of freedom, there's inevitably going to be some staff resentment.
It's also important that staff communicate any problems they have with their Internet access to their IT and HR departments, if you think Web usage restrictions are preventing you from doing your job, there are ways to tweak whatever fibers are in place. It may take some time to implement these changes, but if enough people are affected by it, changes can happen.
Giving employees advance warning about potential changes, informing them about why they are being implemented, allowing some personal email use during work time, and ensuring that an email and Internet usage policy is communicated well are movers that employees will appreciate in the long run.
MAKING INFO SMARTER
The seemingly endless glut of information we as workers struggle with could end up making it even harder for us to find what we're after. But instead of letting information overload hamper our productivity, enterprise search technology is getting deverer.
Norwegian firm Fast Search And Transfer ( www.fastsearch.com)--whose Web search product was sold to Overturn/Yahoo! last year--has developed an enterprise search platform (ESP) that simultaneously and almost instantaneously trawls through your work'stuff', including email, photos, documents and the Internet, It also searches through structured information located in spreadsheets and databases. Nor is the system scared of dipping into intimidating software suites involving high-end stuff like customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning.
Because ESP can tap into information held by other corporate partners or business divisions as well as displaying what's on the Internet, it's easy to cross-reference data during, say, a merger. Alternatively you could use it to keep a record of your company's press coverage, or scan relevant email or account information sent or received at the end of the financial year.
No longer will we have to wait 10 minutes while Windows Search trawls laboriously through each and every folder on our hard drives or networks, before displaying around 50 vague potential matches to the document you're after!
TRACED BACK THROUGH EMAILS
Horrible and embarrassing email gaffes have been made throughout time. Quite often, though, leaked emails are a good thing--they've exposed scandals and other information we arguably had a right to know about. But without further ado, here's Internet Magazine's top 10 email leaks that were supposed to remains confidential ...
10 September 11, 2001, spin doctor Jo Moore sent a memo to then transport secretary Stephen Byers saying that it was a 'very good day to bury bad news'. The email was leaked and Moore was forced to apologise. Months later she resigned after a similar faux pas concerning the release of bad transport figures on the day Princess Margaret died.
9 When Jason Gissing wanted to join 500 [pounds sterling]-a-year private club Monte's (pictured below) in January 2001, he asked its manager, Patricia Cusack, if he could take a tour before making a final decision. A fair request, but Cusack didn't think so. Her email to the secretary read: 'Amanda--can you arrange a time for this asshole to come in. Weekends at 8pm is no good for anyone--he obviously wants to make a night of it!' Unfortunately, Cusack accidentally sent the email to Gissing himself.
8 Cherie Blair and serial con artist Peter Foster's email exchange over the purchase of two discounted fiats in Bristol was leaked to the Daily Mail. Mrs Blair was forced to apologise over the incident, particularly as Downing Street had initially denied the electronic exchange.
7 In 2002 teenager Claire McDonald's inbox was repeatedly flooded with sensitive messages from a Royal Navy officer based at the Pentagon, concerning problems with British warships and New Zealand's terrorism defence strategy. Although Claire kept replying to the emails to inform the sender of the mistake, a dozen a day kept coming in. Apparently she was on the mailing list because of a typo.
6 Peter Chung was all set for his new life as an investment banker at The Carlyle Group's Seoul branch. A week after his arrival he used company email to write to all his colleagues, boasting about his new lavish lifestyle. 'I know I was a stud in NYC but I pretty much get about, on average, 5-8 phone numbers a night and at least 3 hot chicks that say that they want to go home with me every night I go out, 'he wrote, among other things. He was fired shortly afterwards.
5 David Frum coined the infamous term 'axis of evil'. The President's speechwriters are traditionally supposed to remain anonymous, but his doting wife Danielle emailed her friends about Frum's supposed genius. 'I realise this is very "Washington" of me to mention, but my husband is responsible for the axis of evil segment in Tuesday's state of the union address. It's not often a phrase one writes gains national notice ... so I hope you'll indulge my wifely pride in seeing this one repeated in headlines everywhere!' Cringe, cringe. Frum resigned.
4 In 2002 Cisco Systems accidentally sent out an internal memo about its financial results, ahead of its release to the markets. The email reached more employees than intended, and Cisco was forced to officially reveal its better-than-expected financial results early. "We felt it was necessary to disclose this information publicly, given the broad internal distribution of the communication" said chief financial officer Larry Carter.
3 Claire Swire (pictured below) used company email to tell her boyfriend, Bradley Chait, how 'yum' his sperm was. Boastful Bradley Chait then sent the message on to his friends with the comment, 'Now THAT's a nice compliment from a lass, isn't it? Before too long, the entire world had heard about it.
2 Charges were dropped against Katharine Gun, who was accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act after leaking an email from the US National Security Agency asking UK spies to bug UN delegates before the Iraq war. Perhaps the prosecution process would have brought to light even more sensitive information? Gun said of her decision to become a whistleblower: 'I know it's difficult and people don't want to jeopardise their lives or careers, but if there are things that should come out, then why not?'
1 The amount of email evidence coming out of the Hutton Inquiry after the death of David Kelly gets the big prize. Clearly, the informal nature of email has added another layer of liability to businesses (and politicians), particularly if they don't keep track of electronic 'trails'. Technologies do exist to limit the exchange of sensitive information, and information rights management systems are in place on many email programs like Lotus Notes and Microsoft Office XP. But human errors will still occur ...
WORKING FLEXIBLY
In our October 2003 issue (IM 108) we discussed the benefits of flexible working--in particular, the advantages of working from home.
In the IT sector, 51 per cent of people already work flexible hours, according to a DTI report, Flexible Working in the IT Industry ( www.dti.gov.uk), Of the 1,000 IT professionals surveyed, 84 per cent think that flexible working should be available to all employees.
Half said they didn't spend as much time with their families as they would like to. And, although 93 per cent of women employed in the IT sector want more flexibility at work, 55 per cent of IT workers don't thin k their senior managers make good 'work-life' balance rote models, the survey found.
"The number of women working in IT fell by 3 per cent last year and the sector needs to urgently consider the reasons behind this fall," says trade secretary Patricia Hewitt. "Every time a well-trained woman leaves, a company wastes time and money on recruitment and training."
With remote working a reality, perhaps more women will consider working in the IT industry--it's just a matter of IT management recognising its true benefits.
It's not all about women, though--68 per cent of those surveyed disagree that it's less acceptable for a man to be working flexibly.