Company Networks – Beware!
Posted on June 16, 2010
I was going to call this post “Social Networking – The drain on corporate networks” – However with the Labor government now wanting to record every person’s email and web browsing history*, there is need for more urgent attention!
I came across a statistic today – one that will only get worse
50% of surveyed companies said at least 30% of their bandwidth is being consumed by social networking traffic (Forrester, Feb 2009).
Have you stopped to think what the implications of social networking are on your business, not only the cost but the legal implications? It only takes an employee minutes to download and install file sharing software (Limewire, Bit Torrent etc) and to start downloading illegal software/music. Ive come across these programs frequently on business computers and corporate networks, not only is it illegal but can lead to virus/trojans infecting the entire network (sometimes that’s why I’m there!). Also productivity is obviously decreased when employees are using the company internet for social networking and it slows down the speed of access to the internet for other employees.
And if the government is successful in with it’s bid to record email and browsing history, it will be easier for companies to be prosecuted for employees indiscretions while abusing the internet at work.
The cost to the company (especially virus/trojan removal) can easily be much more than the price of a secure network – one that is planned and managed correctly just makes common sense and should be a priority (just like a good accounting package).
As usual – Don’t hesitate to contact us for more information, or for an assessment of your network.
* NOTE: not content – just addresses – for now. Click here for more info.
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