With more businesses including remote work in their daily operations, the line between work life and home life is more blurred than ever. Your employees might or might not be allowed to use their work devices for personal tasks. But if they are, the chances are good that they’ll do some online shopping on work devices or using your business network. After all, online shopping is pretty much a way of life for nearly all of us these days.
If you do allow employees to complete personal chores during business hours or using business equipment, you will probably want to set some limits. These tasks should be completed during break times only, never in front of clients, and not excessively to the extent that they interrupt business operations. Other requirements might include…
Use safe websites only. Obviously, some websites are more acceptable to use during work hours than others. Amazon is fine, whereas adult entertainment is not. You might be surprised that some employees need these rules of social etiquette spelled out for them!
Also, employees should look for the lock symbol and/or “https” in the address bar. These signal a safe website.
Issue a reminder about email attachments. Excessive personal browsing or online shopping on the business network will likely result in a much higher volume of spam emails. Remind employees that even if an email appears to originate from an online retailer, it might be fake. Reiterate your protocol on opening email attachments, which can contain Malware that infects your entire system.
Use personal accounts, not business ones. And of course, if you decide to do a little online shopping yourself, only use your personal credit card accounts. Never open up your business account to the potential for fraud.
Install proper internet security protocol. The more your network is used for non-business tasks, the more likely you are to suffer an attack of some type. Make sure your internet security protocol are up to date by calling us at 888-RING-MY-TECH. We can help you identify potential weaknesses in your network, and install updated programs to protect you.
