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Corporate Networks Get Respite From Porn

There is less smut flowing into corporate networks, and it’s largely because users are starting to smarten up. MessageLabs, Inc., a managed email security provider based in New York, reports that the flood of pornographic images, whether they’re tied to off-color jokes, e-cards or material from porn sites, is ebbing. And analysts there say it’s […]

Written By
SG
Sharon Gaudin
Sep 28, 2004
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There is less smut flowing into corporate networks, and it’s largely

because users are starting to smarten up.

MessageLabs, Inc., a managed email security provider based in New York,

reports that the flood of pornographic images, whether they’re tied to

off-color jokes, e-cards or material from porn sites, is ebbing. And

analysts there say it’s because employees are more aware today that the

IT department is keeping an eye on content coming into and going out of

corporate networks.

But the same analyst is concerned the lesson could quickly fade from

memory and the tide of smut could pick up again.

”There is less smut going into inboxes, but we’re not talking about

spam,” says Natasha Staley, an information security analyst with

MessageLabs. ”This is about employees sending or receiving solicited

images. It’s pornography that they’ve asked for… You often have a

group of employees sending pornographic images back and forth amongst

themselves.”

And those pornographic images open up a Pandora’s Box of problems for

the company’s legal department as well as the IT department. Staley

explains that executives have to worry about improper use of the network

and protecting their bandwidth, but they also have to worry about an

image on someone’s computer screen creating a hostile working

environment and the legal issues that could ensue.

The good news is that there’s less smut floating around those networks

today.

MessageLab’s study shows that between March and August, they filtered

out one pornographic or otherwise inappropriate email for every 4,756

messages sent through the company’s service. In the same period last

year, however, the ratio was one in 1,357.

”Employees are becoming more aware that their employers are keeping an

eye on them, so they’re asking for less porn to be sent to them,” says

Staley. ”The switch in attitude has been quite dramatic. I just don’t

think you can get away with that kind of thing now so people are keeping

a closer eye on what they send and ask for.”

Staley also notes that IT administrators can look for patterns of

behavior. If an employee is caught receiving a pornographic e-card, the

ramifications will be less drastic than if it can be shown that he

repeatedly has porn sent to him at work and then shares it with his

co-workers. Workers generally are fired for having racist, sexist or

pornographic material on a company network.

But Staley warns that IT administrators shouldn’t let up their guard.

”I’d sound a note of caution that just because we’ve seen a drop, it

won’t necessarily be sustained,” she adds. ”It could be a knee-jerk

reaction. People have this in their minds, but then they forget and they

become complacent and you see it popping up again. I don’t think the

problem will go away. This could be a temporary blip. I don’t know if it

will be a sustained trend.”

To sustain the drop in smut, Staley advises IT execs to continue

monitoring the network, and to keep educating their users about the fact

that they are being monitored and why it’s important to keep porn off

the network. But she also advises them not to be too iron-handed in

their approach.

”Don’t be too Draconian in the measures you implement,” Staley says.

”At Christmas time, maybe it’s not a big deal that people are sending

electronic greeting cards. But people need to know where you draw the

line. Get them involved about why this is important. That will help you

get the message across.”

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SG

Sharon Gaudin is a veteran technology journalist who has worked for the likes of Computerworld, InformationWeek, and Datamation. She has covered everything from the cloud, security, and social networking to software development, robotics, artificial intelligence, and hardware.

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