11.09.09 Internet Use Policies
www.ISBO.biz
Quote of the Month:
“If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.”
—B.C. Forbes, Scottish financial journalist (1880-1954)
Marcus Simpson is co-owner of TCG America, a company providing IT services and consulting for small and medium businesses. We all depend on the Internet daily, so companies with employees need to have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and be ready to enforce it. The advice is good for households with children, also.
There are 113 million domains registered, with 100,000 new ones each day. “It’s hard to keep track of which sites are good and which ones are bad,” said Marcus.
One research study found that almost 70 percent of you-know-what traffic (rhymes with corn) occurs weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Streaming audio and video use up a lot of bandwidth. If your employees are watching videos on YouTube all day long, it will degrade the performance of office computers. Games and instant messaging are other bandwidth eater-uppers.
So, a written contract between the company and employees is called for. The Acceptable Use Policy defines access privileges and rules of online behavior, along with the consequences for violating those rules. “An AUP ensures that networked computers are being used in a safe, relevant and appropriate manner,” said Marcus.
Your AUP should also include an explanation of what constitutes acceptable site categories. “It’s important that every business not infringe on freedoms,” said Marcus, “but be made held responsible for Internet usage inside their business.” The agreement needs to be signed by all employees—or students and their parents for a school’s AUP.
Oh, here’s what not to do. At a tech conference a few years ago, Marcus heard a story of a school printing out a list for students of sites they were forbidden to visit. Became quite popular, that list. Duh.
Most AUPs filter content by category (for example, chat sites and you-know-what (rhymes with torn) sites, not by individual URLs. There are too many individual sites to block. You can use software and hardware to block sites. Marcus recommends using both. If you block social networking sites during work hours, consider unblocking them during the lunch hour for employee morale. And before blocking anything, take a month to monitor what sites employees are visiting.
Why is blocking such a big deal? Here’s what happens when your networked computers are surfing unacceptable sites: data loss, drive crashes, system failures, identity theft, viruses, worms, rootkits, hackers, Trojans, spyware, malware, zombies. . . to name a few.
You-know-what (rhymes with worn) sites are notorious for viruses and spyware that infect your computer. “Malicious code can download into your browser and do bad things to your computer,” said Marcus. Also, be aware of phishing, which is a fake site that looks real and attempts to get your financial information or other sensitive data.
“Just one virus infecting one PC has the potential of spreading inside the network and it can be quite costly to get it resolved,” said Marcus. He likes to see protected systems with secure data, reliable backups, an optimized system, and great support.
“More than 60 percent of all wireless access points are not secure,” said Marcus. It’s important to change the admin password on your router and enable the security. Change the name of your wireless connection throughout the year. Disable the SSID feature on your home connection for another layer of security. Same for any office where you don’t offer wireless connectivity for customers.
It used to be that all you needed was virus protection on your computer, but there 20 more threats now. You need a good firewall, spyware, anti-spam, rootkit protection, and other forms of technology safeguards.
As a reminder, don’t click on anything in an e-mail. Even if it looks like a message from your bank or phone company (even if it really is them), go to your browser and type in the URL yourself. Don’t risk clicking on a phishing site.
“You don’t want to be too paranoid, but stay smart,” said Marcus.
We thank Marcus for his presentation. Feel free to contact him with any questions.
Marcus Simpson
http://www.tcgamerica.com
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Have a fabulous month!
KS
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This is a recap of the November 2009 ISBO.biz luncheon in Lexington, KY.
We meet the second Monday of each month and would love to see you at a lunch meeting. Please e-mail us for more information.
If you notice any typos or broken links, please let us know.