Taming the Elephant
No organisation can impose an outright ban on downloading of images or videos in the workplace. Yet without any controls in place, employees will continue to abuse the corporate network, regardless of any acceptable usage policy. Furthermore, no line manager relishes the task of chastising a top sales person for their use of porn; nor does the business want to risk losing a number of valuable employees as a result of their inappropriate behaviour.
It is therefore essential to put in place a tool that not only monitors all email and flags up those containing suspicious images but also automates the organisation’s response – such as an email citing the suspected breach of the usage policy.
By automating the process and taking a non invasive approach, organisations can enforce the acceptable usage policy and drastically reduce the volume of pornographic images and videos in the workplace, safeguarding the brand and ensuring a harmonious workplace.
Escalating Pornography Risk
For too long the ‘porn in the office’ issue has been the elephant in the room: a genuine corporate concern but one which organisations had no idea how to address and hence have just ignored. Organisations know it is not feasible to take a draconian approach and block all images – it compromises genuine business activity. But without a viable, cost effective way of checking for image content, organisations have essentially ignored the issue of employee use of the corporate network for the distribution of porn.
However, with the rapid growth in activity, the risk is now simply too great to ignore. A recent survey by The Fawcett Society found that 20 percent (one fifth) of men questioned admitted to accessing pornographic material within the workplace. And this is an issue that will continue to grow: with today’s high-speed lines, larger hard disk drives, cameras with chip cards and the prevalence of mobile phones with cameras, individuals can now access and store vast quantities of images and videos.
And they are increasingly using a range of legitimate communication tools, including email, to easily propagate this material across both internal and external networks. Yet with each email containing the company name in the sign off, the potential brand damage associated with the dissemination of pornographic material outside the organisation is significant.
As the volume of activity increases, so does the security risk. Certainly the recent investigation of 100 employees at the Environment Agency who were found sending pornographic emails has highlighted the very costly fall out of the problem of inappropriate sexual material in the office. From brand damage to the risk of litigation and the HR cost of handling disciplinary hearings, the implications of employee use of porn are fast taking centre stage.
