Author: Vangie Beal
Tis the season for cheer and shopping, and while small business owners openly welcome the cheer, some have mixed feelings about letting employees do their online holiday shopping from the office.
Online shopping may sound harmless, but the reality is that many businesses are not aware of the security risks associated with online shopping or know how to protect their business computers from the threats.
The easy solution would be to prohibit employees from shopping online while at work, but not many small business owners really want to be known as the The Grinch for seasons to come.
An Acceptable-Use Policy
Steve Yin, vice president of global sales and marketing for St Bernard, the company behind the iPrism Internet filtering appliance, recommends small businesses deal with holiday shopping by establishing an acceptable use policy (AUP) or updating your existing policy to include terms for shopping site access.
An acceptable use policy defines what employees can and cannot do at work, and it outlines unacceptable use of work computers and Internet access. An AUP typically prohibits access to online gambling and adult Web sites and peer-to-peer file sharing networks. The policy also details a companys right to access e-mail, includes policies for liability disclaimers and lists of actions or behaviors that will result in termination.
According to Yin, some of the best and well-received policies allow personal computer time during work hours (including holiday shopping), but also require employees to stay within standard Internet security safeguards to protect work computers.
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