Computer Times
June 2004

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• More than 75 percent of people have accidentally visited a pornographic Web site while at work
• 15 percent have visited such sites of them more than 10 times
• 50 percent of respondents spent more than 10 percent of their time at work surfing the Web for personal reasons

These statistics come from a new Web usage survey conducted by Cerberian, Inc. a leading provider of intelligent Web filtering solutions for businesses, homes and schools, and SonicWALL Inc., a leading provider of integrated security, productivity and mobility solutions.

More than 2,400 people responded during the month of April 2004 via email to questions about everything from Internet access policies, to personal surfing habits at work and feelings about co-workers surf habits. According to the survey, the Internet is still a relatively unmonitored medium.

• 60 percent of the respondents indicated their organizations did not have rules against personal Web surfing at work
• More than 50 percent of organizations have not implemented any type of Internet filtering technology

Unmonitored Internet access raisesis a leadingcan become a legal liabilityis a potential liability issues for organizations [according to whom?][need to provide validation/proof], especially when it comes to employees being exposed to pornography at the office and employees using corporate resources to download, store and exchange copyrighted material. The potential for sexual harassment complaints and employee disciplinary issues arising out ofSexual harassment lawsuits and employee firings due to iInnappropriate use of the Internet at work may give rise to serious disciplinary problems in the workplace.are becoming regular occurrences in today's corporate environment. Results from the Cerberian/SonicWALL/Cerberian Web Usage Survey validate the need for organizations to implement Internet access policies and content filtering technologies.

According to the survey the most common ways people have accidentally reached pornographic content on the Web are:

• Pop up windows (55%),
• Misrepresented links (52%),
• Misspelled URLs (48%), and
• Auto links within emails (23%).

While the survey indicates it is common to accidentally come across pornographic web sites, the survey also reported thatthe following:

• 16 percent of people have knowingly surfed pornography sites at work at least once;
• 40 percent have seen co-workers surfing porn sites;
• 32 percent of people have seen co-workers surf gambling sites;
• 91 percent have seen people shopping online; and
• 85 percent have seen co-workers surfing sports-related web sites.

The survey also asked how people felt after seeing co-workers surf pornography, gambling, shopping and sports web sites. Sixty-eight percent were bothered by pornography surfing, with 47 percent bothered enough to confront the offender or mention it to management/human resources. Fifty-nine percent were offended by gambling surfing, 35 percent by shopping online and 29 percent by sports surfing.

"It is clear from the survey that there is a growing awareness among individuals as well as organizations of the problems resulting from unregulated employee Internet access," said Matthew Medeiros, chief executive officer at SonicWALL. "While pornography is obviously the biggest concern, other surfing habits, from shopping to sports, are absorbing an increasing amount of employee attention inside organizations. The potential for legal troubles and lost productivity, as well asLiability concerns security concerns and lLost productivity as well as security issues and the abuse of network resources will continue to mount unless businesses formulate and enforce Internet access policies and internal controls."

Detailed results from one of the twenty questions on the survey is shown below.

Q4. For non-job related surfing where do you spend most of your time (please rank in order your top 5 categories)

A complete compilation of survey findings can be found at www.cerberian.com/surveyresults.

To learn more about the social, legal and ethical issues of Web usage and other IT problems that face individuals and organizaitons, the editors of Computer Times suggest you enroll in the online course at Sullivan University titled CSC 302 SOCIAL, LEGAL & ETHICAL ISSUES OF COMPUTING.