Porn To Be Wild?

Almost half of US employees accept that their employers would be justified in sacking them for viewing adult content using their work internet connection, new research has reported.

The 2006 Web@Work survey by Websense goes on to claim that one-third of workers would expect to be fired if they infected the company with malicious spyware or a virus.

The results show that employees believe that viewing adult content at work or infecting their company with malicious spyware or a virus puts them at greater risk of losing their job than sleeping at their desk, which was rated by only 11 per cent as a sacking offence.

Some 12 per cent of employees have visited a pornography website while at work, either by accident or on purpose. The overwhelming majority of those who have visited pornography sites at work (95 per cent) said that their visit to the site was 'accidental'.

The report also found that 12 per cent of employees admitted that they have received an 'offensive' link in an email from a co-worker, friend or acquaintance at their work email address.

Similarly, 11 per cent of employees admitted that a co-worker, friend or acquaintance has sent a link to their work email address to a website that they thought might contain spyware or lead to some sort of security risk.

Of those workers who said they use the internet at work for personal reasons, half would rather give up their morning coffee than their ability to use the internet at work for personal use.
Over 60 per cent of employees who use a work internet connection admitted that they spend at least some time surfing non work-related websites during the day.

Of these employees, the average time spent accessing the internet at work is 12.81 hours per week, and the average time accessing non-work-related websites at work is 3.06 hours per week.

The report noted that this represents an average 24 per cent of employees' time spent accessing the internet is for non work-related purposes.

Some five per cent of employees have a personal blog, 46 per cent of whom record work-related events or interactions with their co-workers in their personal blogs at least some of the time.

Over 40 per cent of employees said that their company has regulations that prohibit employee blogging.

"Protecting employees from hostile work environments that can result from the availability of x-rated content in the workplace will always be an important concern for organisations seeking to limit their potential legal liability for sexual harassment," said Michael Newman, vice president and general counsel at Websense.

"However, web-based security threats such as malicious spyware and viruses are much more difficult for employees and companies to detect, and the potential for damage can be disastrous.

"One accidental click of the mouse can take an entire network down for days at a time."

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Dwight Brown writes about Spyware on his Blog www.adware--spyware--remover.com/