Surfing Web from the Office !!!

Many people who have I-Net facility in their offices, which is very common in many corporate offices, surf the web for their personal purposes like e-mails, chatting, blogs, shopping etc. from the official network. Employers hardly used to bother about it. Lately many employers are getting stricter about Internet access for other than official work and web surfing for leisure at work. Many American companies are really on top of this. The computer forensic examiners are hired in companies to investigate computer misuse.

Computer security experts say there are four reasons why employees block site access -

1. Security - The companies are most concerned about security and that is why sites such as MySpace are blocked. There are numerous sites that can install adware or spyware onto a computer. Also there are online storage and file-sharing sites, that can be used to share proprietary information.
2. Legal liability – Employees that are allowed to surf indiscriminately can expose their employers to legal problems. If employees see pornography, hate sites, extreme religious sites and so forth, that is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
3. Productivity – Having employees spend their work day posting to personal blogs, chatting, planning wedding and vacations, shopping online, researching family genealogy, day trading, horoscopes, participating in online dating services or loosing money on gambling sites, keeps employees from doing the jobs they were hired to do.
4. Bandwidth problem - Workers who go online or download programs may create a bandwidth problem and bog down the speed of network operations. Downloading music or movies slows down the system. If employees are messing around on sites other than work, that could slow down the resources of others who are really trying to work, so companies just say our work computers are for work.

Some companies are putting up caution messages, when employees log on to their system, it says : "This system is for authorized business use only. Unauthorized access or activity is a violation of law. All system activity is subject to monitoring for security purposes". Expect more employers to block more web portals such as AOL, Yahoo and MSN. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Adapted from Hindustan Times)

The Other Side of the Story/ Employees’ perspective –After reading this article, I interacted with few of my friends who has I-Net access at the office and surf web other than office work during working hours, and sought their opinion. As per them,

1. Net surfing in between the official work comes as a refreshing experience. It breaks the monotony of work.
2. They also feel that it enhances Net-working skills.
3. As well they are able to connect to their friends which is very difficult otherwise in this so much busy working schedule of theirs.

In my mind, one more question arises ----- How Ethical it is ?

Looking fwd to the opinion of worthy jatlanders….. what do you say…?

You are most welcome with your views - Pro as well as Con.