Exinda Networks claims to have developed a unique system that allows a company to monitor exactly which Web sites are visited by each individual employee and how much bandwidth has been used -- in terms of a cash loss to the employer.
Con Nikolouzakis, director of Exinda Networks, said the URL and bandwidth monitoring system was designed to ensure employees can be held responsible for the cost of misused bandwidth and time.
"If you use your office computer for internet banking and booking theatre tickets, you're fine. If you choose to use it to download illegal software, research personal interests or other non-business uses then you could be issued with a 'please explain' and a bill for the costs of the bandwidth and time you wasted," said Nikolouzakis.
According to Nikolouzakis, bandwidth-abusers can have access to certain sites blocked or their bandwidth could be throttled, which would significantly slow that individual's access to the undesirable Web site. Additionally, the employee could be presented with a bill.
"Theoretically individual employees could be charged a fee for non-business related internet usage on a monthly basis if an employer wanted to get tough on staff abusing their Web access but didn't want to block them altogether," said Nikolouzakis.
However, not everyone agrees that charging employees for 'personal' bandwidth is a good idea.
James Turner, industry analyst for security & services at Frost & Sullivan, said that charging employees for personal bandwidth usage would stir up a hornet's nest because bandwidth is relatively cheap and employees get a "morale boost" from having some freedom to surf at work.
"Most employees sign an Acceptable Internet Usage policy when they join a new company. After that, there is a level of trust between employer and employee. Companies like Computer Associates already have software that can measure an individual's bandwidth usage, so the technology isn't new and across the market there is not a huge demand," said Turner.
However, Turner did agree that there is a need for employers to spot the employees that regularly abuse the system.
"The tiny minority of bandwidth abusers are most likely downloading illegal material (such as pirated movies) and their employers need to be able to detect and stop this for anti-piracy reasons. No company wants to be involved in trafficking stolen goods and storing illegal digital material is an extension of this," said Turner.
'"The tiny minority of bandwidth abusers are most likely downloading illegal material (such as pirated movies) and their employers need to be able to detect and stop this for anti-piracy reasons. No company wants to be involved in trafficking stolen goods and storing illegal digital material is an extension of this," said Turner.'
Not to mention the frightening risks of corporate information being exposed for purloining and amendment. Most twits that risk their jobs doing illegal activities don't realise what risks they are exposing their employer and their corporate data to.
Petty crime such as stealing a pen or two, surfing and browsing on work time, soon extends to more rotten things. Once you get away with it, chances are high you will raise the stakes a weeny bit higher next time.
Online banking, online surfing, downloading shareware, downloading warez, browsing porn, downloading music, downloading movies, downloading porn, setting up peer-to-peer networks to share files, catching spyware and viruses and trojan keyloggers, blogging, offering corporate secrets to competitors - where does it end?
The threat of being caught needs to be an effective deterrent - the monitoring software results need to be 'accidently' made available from time to time to keep the ****s honest.
Best weapon of all - setup an 'Acceptable Use Policy' with the threat of immediate dismissal for abuse. Make sure everybody is aware of it when they join, and reminded of it in writing (and sign it off) at least annually as part of a performance review. Then watch the unions squeal when somebody gets sprung! Seeya in court...
Toilet and smoko breaks during work time? No way. :)
Which century do we live in?
PS. Why does the filter software here ****ume (that is a-s-s-ume) that ALL occurances of A*S*S are verboten?