We often associate the unauthorized release of confidential company information with actions from hackers and undercover agents from competitors, but the truth is that a large percentage of the unauthorized release of information is related to Internet misuse in the workplace. Even though most companies have strict Internet usage policies their employees frequently disregard these policies. According to a study from Websense Inc. “employees are using the Web more and more for personal reasons and that is setting U.S. companies back $178 billion annually, a cost of $5,000 per employee.”
 |
| (http://www.brcontrol.com.br/ENG/images/browser-logo-major.jpg) |
An example of how Internet misuse in the workplace has the
ability to affect a company both legally and financially is the case of an
employee from a medical facility using the Internet to post a comment on a
social media website regarding a patient. Even if the employee and the patient
are related and the employee did not have any negative intentions the
unauthorized release of medical information represents a Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA) violation. HIPAA violations represent high financial
and legal costs to the health industry.
HIPPA compliance program advertisement
 |
| (http://abouthipaa.com/wp-content/uploads/dothemath-bootcamp.jpeg) |
Even though some companies cannot restrict their employees’
access to the Internet because of the nature of their business, the companies
have the chance to establish solid ethics and compliance policies and training.
Effective ethics and compliance programs lower the legal and financial impact
of a data breach on a company because the companies that use them the have the
ability to prove that they took reasonable measures to prevent the data
breaches.
Websites of interest
I feel as if the major companies are fighting a up hill battle. It is quite difficult to keep employees or anyone for that matter away from the Internet. If there is no Internet in the nature of the business we still have mobile devices. Employees are always sneaky and get on social media with their phone. Companies must place strict rules and regulations, even then employees will find ways.
ReplyDelete-hector hernandez