Personal email (such as Hotmail and Gmail) is used by more than 61 percent of respondents at work, while 41 percent admit to using instant messaging applications such as Microsoft Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger to communicate with friends and family. The rapidly growing popularity of Skype is highlighted by that fact that 23 percent of respondents use Skype at work and presumably have loaded the Skype client on to their employers' computers.

SmoothWall polled more than 300 business Internet users during November 2005 on Internet usage at work. News sites are the most popular nonwork-related Web sites, regularly visited by 85 percent of respondents. Shopping and auction sites were also popular, with 40 percent shopping online from work and 37 percent using eBay and other auction sites.

"Employees are failing to take notice of the high profile incidents of employees being dismissed for accessing pornography at work, as more than a third of respondents said that they were aware of pornography being downloaded within their organization," said George Lungley, managing director, SmoothWall.

Although most organizations are prepared to allow a certain amount of nonwork-related Web browsing, the survey reveals much more than incidental usage. More than a third of respondents confessed to spending in excess of 30 minutes each working day accessing nonwork-related Web sites, while 22 percent spend more than an hour per day. Only 15 percent of respondents said they only accessed nonwork-related sites during lunchtime and outside of core working hours.

A surprising 31 percent of respondents admitted to occasionally downloading music or videos over the Internet while at work, with eight percent claiming to do it on a regular basis. Apart from the fact that downloading these large files consumes large amounts of Internet bandwidth, employers could be considered to be complicit to any violation of copyright law.

"Companies are obviously still not enforcing Internet usage policies. We recommend locking down corporate networks to all but essential business applications and strictly controlling access to nonwork-related Web sites during working hours," continued Lungley.

Where an AUP is enforced, 19 percent said the policy is enforced by software control, 13 percent by management checks and 28 percent by a combination of software and management controls. 40 percent of respondents said that an AUP was in place but was not enforced.

SmoothWall recommends that companies prevent the use of nonwork-related applications at work to ensure legal compliance, avoid time wasting Web browsing of nonwork-related sites and prevent the risk of malicious Web sites infecting PCs with spyware and viruses. Companies need to develop a clear AUP and communicate it to all their staff. Critically, the policy should be enforced using centralized software control, to protect the employers' reputation, productivity and computer systems.

Source:  SmoothWall (www.smoothwall.net)