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How much time and resources are wasted due to inappropriate
web-surfing at the office?
The risks and losses involved with the misuse of Internet access
by employees are substantial to the employer. They could be legally
liable for explicit material being downloaded onto corporate machines
using corporate resources on company time. The loss of productivity
from staff surfing sites not related to business during office hours
is a bill that the organization should not have to pickup. Also
legitimate services can be adversely affected by unproductive employees
accessing high bandwidth sites, such as streaming media, MP3, or
file sharing sites. Each organization that has adopted any form
of web-filtering has seen the benefits of greater productivity and
increased network efficiency.
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| The potential for unauthorized surfing increases everyday,
as more and more avenues of diversion are generated by countless individuals
and organizations. These diversions include auction sites, off-shore
gambling sites, pornographic sites, etcetera etcetera. Due to this
and many other reasons, an organization-wide acceptable usage policy
should be created for all staff with web connectivity. Employee Internet
usage policies provide improved productivity ratings; corporate protection
from legal liability; prevents embarrassment to the company; preserves
bandwidth; increases a feeling of ethical integrity and does not rely
on personal accountability. But how do you implement these policies
in a realistic and comprehensive way? Avanti Networks Inc. can provide
many solutions to the problem of recreational Internet usage by employees.
The danger of allowing unrestricted access to the Internet by employees
ranges from legal implications of allowing pornographic or adult material
to be viewed and cached onto the disk of a work computer, the loss
of productivity from other non-work related activities such as gambling
and games, losing key staff by allowing recruitment sites to be visited,
as well as reduced company bandwidth for legitimate activities by
allowing streaming media such as MP3 sites to be visited from work.
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