Sep 20 2005
IT Department = Security Risk
Workers are more like to indulge in risky Internet behavior — surfing to unknown or even suspicious sites, for example — when they have an IT department behind them to clean up their mess, a recently released study claims.
According to the July study — which was released Tuesday by Tokyo-based Trend Micro and based on polls of 1,200 users, 400 each in the U.S., Germany, and Japan — 39 percent of enterprise workers believed that their company’s IT department would keep them safe from viruses, worms, spyware, spam, and phishing and pharming attacks.
That confidence, whether on the mark or misplaced, leads workers to do risky, even stupid, things at work, such as opening questionable e-mail messages or clicking on unknown Web site links.
Out of those who admitted to unsafe surfing, 63 percent acknowledged they took the risk because IT had installed security software on their computers, for instance. Meanwhile, 40 percent of risk-takers admitted they did so because IT was available to provide support if problems occurred, essentially providing a backstop.
Say no more. I’ve seen it first hand. “Don’t worry, Vinny can fix it.”
Oh yeah. It’s my life.
Source: Information Week via /.
September 20th, 2005 at 2:49 pm
That would explain why my old boss wouldn’t get rid of AOL - he had me around to get the computer working again every few weeks when it bogged down.
He moved to open another office for the company out of state, three years ago, so it’s not so bad. I only get called upon every few months to straighten out someone’s computer when they’ve got the porn viewer locked onto their desktop, or they activated an Internet enhancer that is trying to dial out via Thailand, or their recycle bin is up to 6GB. When that happens, I get a call to come and bail them out.
Oh, did I mention that I was laid off from that company over 2 years ago?
Nevertheless, I get calls and emails, asking for help. It’s invoiced at my consulting rate, or else we barter. Last year, in exchange for about 2 hours of my time, I received a 19 inch, flat-tube, black matrix monitor that had been sitting idle for a year. On the latest call, I got bolder - my old 1.7gHz P4 system is sitting on a shelf. Couldn’t get it for the one visit, but in exchange for a commitment of 10 hours of my time? It’s mine.
-cjb-