Many companies today are assigning their employees computers (laptops or workstations) to be able to perform their duties. Today computing devices are common and surround us everywhere, so it is not uncommon for some employees to take these company-owned computers for granted and perform non-business activities or even mistreat or abuse the equipment. Employers should be aware that the computers they assign to employees will never be only used for business activities – this is almost a given. What most companies fail to understand is how much a single user with a laptop can harm the company by either spending too much non-work related time online or even worse, by unknowingly releasing company information, login information or sensitive client data.

Companies, which let their employees use a computer exposed to the internet, need to make sure that they have the appropriate company policies in place and adequately inform and train their employees how to use the company computer equipment. According to a survey by International Data Corp (IDC), 30 to 40% of Internet access is spent on non-work related browsing, and a staggering 60% of all online purchases are made during working hours.

Below is a list of additional compelling statistics from the U.S. Department of Ecommerce and Economics and Statistics Administration that should be taken into consideration when developing company policies or computer and internet usage guidelines:

• 30 to 40% of Internet use in the workplace is not related to business.
• 64% of employees say they use the Internet for personal interest during
  working hours.
• The average fraud inflicts a loss of about $110,000 per corporate/organization victim, and $15,000 to each individual victim.
• 30-40% of lost productivity is accounted for by cyber-slacking
• A company with 1,000 Internet users could lose upwards of $35 million in productivity annually from just an hour of daily Web surfing by employees.

Individuals directly responsible for IS/IT security within an organization should consider the following four-tier high level matrix and use it as a starting point and framework on which they could build on and customize their policies to affect their organizational structure. They should also keep in mind that no matter what and how many policies a company has, the end user is still going to be the weakest link when it comes to IS/IT security. Training employees on regular basis should be a high priority item each year.

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