Piracy in the workplace increases 55 percent

Piracy in the workplace increases 55 percent
ScanSafe, a provider of corporate software, has reported that workplace piracy (and attempted piracy) is up 55 percent in the last three months on corporate networks, including downloads of movies, music and software.

The company says it "currently processes data across more than 100 countries for millions of employees, giving it the industry’s most significant insight into the latest trends in Web traffic and malware."

"Employees mistakenly assume they can use the Internet at work in exactly the same way as they use it at home and this is potentially one of the reasons for this steady increase in illegal download attempts over recent months,"
adds Spencer Parker, director of product management at ScanSafe. "Inappropriate Internet use in the workplace can put the employer at risk for legal liabilities."



Parker continues: "Downloading illegal content is a 'double whammy' for employers as not only does it put them at risk legally but it also puts the company network at risk of being infected with malware. A large majority of free illegal downloading websites are often riddled with malware."

As a response to the increase in the number, ScanSafe says employers should create a "defined" Internet usage policy, one that will hold the employees liable for any wrong doing.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Jan 2010 13:49
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  • 10 comments
  • ZippyDSM

    This is what happens when you prevent them from going to youtube and facebook......

    28.1.2010 16:23 #1

  • borhan9

    Quote:As a response to the increase in the number, ScanSafe says employers should create a "defined" Internet usage policy, one that will hold the employees liable for any wrong doing.Just create a proxy and it should solve any issues. Not all employees are computer savy persay. Its not bullet proof but at least its something.

    28.1.2010 23:16 #2

  • biglo30

    They should also limit there bandwidth

    29.1.2010 00:14 #3

  • bobiroc

    I run into this all the time and it is that reason I am thankful we have strong internet content filtering. Not only do we have URL filtering but we can filter on packet inspection and while we allow certain things that are not necessary for the job like personal IM we keep logs of that including the text typed into those IMs. I work in education IT so we have to have strong filtering for our students but still occasionally will run into situations where students or staff are trying to do such things. Most things are blocked and while I wish we had more of a strong backing from administration on accountability we did recently fire a guy who was a Deans Aide for streaming a movie that was still in theaters over the internet. Not only was that a violation of our AUP it violated copyright laws so they let him go. I try to run tight ship but constantly get complaints because we enforce pretty strict policies on our internet usage including bandwidth limitations down to the user level so no one person can eat up the entire internet pipe. We had a teacher write up a long email on while facebook should be open and basically said that his lunch hour is his time and the district has no right to tell him what he can do on that time. My assistant superintendent laughed in his face and said you are using the school's computers and school's network all paid for by the tax payers so you can get your facebook time at home and if you feel that you are being shafted in any way do not let the door hit you in the ass on the way out because we want teachers that are focused on educating out children and not concerned about updating your FB status or playing farmville. I found that quite amusing.

    29.1.2010 20:22 #4

  • scum101

    hahaha.. oh yes.. nice to hear a sys-admin speak out for a change.

    An employee trying to justify facebook in lunchtime?.. I guess if they want to do that they should go off site and visit starbucks or maccy D's with free wifi for lunch isn't it.. quality ;)

    Yes, we give you 100% free, no strings attached email! Just send us your address and we will send you as much free email as you could ever wish for

    29.1.2010 20:28 #5

  • bobiroc

    Originally posted by scum101: hahaha.. oh yes.. nice to hear a sys-admin speak out for a change.

    An employee trying to justify facebook in lunchtime?.. I guess if they want to do that they should go off site and visit starbucks or maccy D's with free wifi for lunch isn't it.. quality ;)
    I mean I am not a total jerk or nothing and we and people can shop and check their personal email and even check out some entertainment sites. Some things are time limited in the sense if you shop a lot eventually that category will be blocked for a temporary duration of course with a log and email sent to mail-admin of where you have been. I even have thresholds on blocked categories such as adult sites so I know who the big "attempters" are. You would be surprised on how many teachers want to try and take a look at some boobies while on the job. A few years ago I caught a gym coach on a forum site that posted pictures of young girls dressed in skimpy cheerleader outfits and eventually got undressed if you know what I mean. I am pretty positive the girls were legal just made up to look really young. It took me about a week of getting logs and screen captures and it was the adult threshold that tipped me off because while this was a forum site by how it was categories most of the ads were sponsered by adult sites and therefore being blocked and tripping the alarm. Working with the same assistant superintendent that told of the facebook teacher I showed her some live activity and when she saw a naked butt on the screen sent down the principle of the school to verify it was actually the teacher in question and sure enough it was him. They had to go through an "investigation" of course and put it before the school board but he was fired. Usually they give teachers an option to resign so not to tarnish their record but this one they fired and he can no longer teach in the state of IL based off his activity.

    I later found out he was kind of caught before but blamed the suspicious activity and nudity pictures found on his computer on students or the janitors. Well this time he was caught red handed.

    I have all sorts of stories about kids trying to pull crap on me and while some of them are pretty sharp I am no dummy and when I was a kid I always wanted to see how far I could go with technology too. So basically you have to think like them and no matter how sharp they think they are they are very dumb in covering their tracks.

    29.1.2010 20:53 #6

  • xboxdvl2

    when i was in school we use to look at porn.we usually got someone to bring it in on a floppy disk and we'd make copies of it.In some ways public or school computers can be a bit rediculous.i was at a public library and a 17year old girl i knew sent me a picture of her in a prom dress but i couldnt view it because it came up as blocked content but on the same computer i could watch pussy cat dolls dancing on stage singing in skimpy outfits.work places need a system in place so employees have a bit of freedom without being over restricted.if i was an employer i wouldnt have a problem with someone using facebook on there lunchbreak unless it affected the other computers by using up the internet connection or affected the work they were doing.On the other note if an employee was using the computer to look at adult content and downloaded a virus id be firing them and deducting there pay to pay the IT staff to fix the problem they caused.

    PS2 with 12 games.

    30.1.2010 00:58 #7

  • bobiroc

    Originally posted by xboxdvl2: when i was in school we use to look at porn.we usually got someone to bring it in on a floppy disk and we'd make copies of it.In some ways public or school computers can be a bit rediculous.i was at a public library and a 17year old girl i knew sent me a picture of her in a prom dress but i couldnt view it because it came up as blocked content but on the same computer i could watch pussy cat dolls dancing on stage singing in skimpy outfits.work places need a system in place so employees have a bit of freedom without being over restricted.if i was an employer i wouldnt have a problem with someone using facebook on there lunchbreak unless it affected the other computers by using up the internet connection or affected the work they were doing.On the other note if an employee was using the computer to look at adult content and downloaded a virus id be firing them and deducting there pay to pay the IT staff to fix the problem they caused.See the problem with that is stuff done on facebook or other sites while on the companies computers or company internet the company can be held liable for which I think this article mentioned. What if someone posted some hate comments about a coworker or their boss or made a threatening IM or something and it got to as far as getting the authorities involved. Most people don't think of that and I am sure it can be rare that it does happen but it does happen. It is not worth the risk. Or in the case of getting an infection from them believing an email or link in a message on facebook is from their friend and they got hijacked or a spyware/virus infection. You gotta think of things like this when you run a company or a school.

    30.1.2010 01:46 #8

  • Wolf354

    If this report included the software, music, movies ... copied from usb pens the numbers would be much scarier.
    Internet security at work is probably being seen in a wrong frame.

    5.2.2010 10:20 #9

  • Mez

    I worked for the Nazies at my last job. Everyone knew you could get fired for downloading P2P or anything they might disapprove of. They were pretty tight except they did not block AD because they must list themselves as tech info or something like that. I had to get sites unblocked because there was an indication that they might discuss hacking. That was doable. Someone needed to check to make sure it wasn't a hacking site (maybe).

    I do not think there was anything wrong with that. Why should they allow you to do something that might be a liability for them?

    5.2.2010 13:18 #10

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