This paper presents a short report to the management of a graphic designing business who is experiencing problems managing the way their expanded staff of 14 workers uses the internet. Specifically, the paper gives guidelines on the manner in which the employees are supposed to use the internet effectively to benefit the company while avoiding risks that could arise from a careless usage of the internet resources. Among the issues considered in the report are the wastage of the firm’s resources, less protection of critical data of the company, inappropriate usage of the internet, and the risk of legal problems resulting from issues of patent rights and others.
Overview
Internet connectivity of this firm offers the institution new risks, which should be dealt with while attempting to safeguard the vital information assets of the company. The risks presented with the connectivity and usage of the internet include the usage of such facilities in a manner that is inconsistent with the requirements of the company that may culminate in resource misuse (Anandarajan and Simmers, 2003). Such activities could affect productivity of the institution adversely because of the time that employees will spend on the internet. In addition, the business might face the loss of its reputation as well as the risk of legal penalties that could arise from misuse (Anandarajan, Teo and Simmers, 2014). Access to the internet by the employees of the firm, therefore shall be done in a manner that supports the activities of the company, and only on the basis of the need for the employees to develop their professions and improve the company.
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Purpose
The purpose of the internet usage policy proposed is to define the best way in which the employees and affiliates of the firm should use the internet.
Scope
The internet usage policy proposed in this document is applicable to all the users of the internet (the employees who include the par-time and full-time ones, temporal agency workers, those working on contract, vendors, and business partners). These identified groups of people have been identified in the basis that they might want to use the internet through networking resources and computing. The identified parties are needed by this policy to comply with and be familiar with the guidelines as well as to use proper judgment and common sense while they the internet services. For such a reason, internet services shall only be used for the purposes of the business only. The company will provision capabilities for following standard services:
E-mail-the users may receive and send e-mails that may or may not contain attachments.
Navigation-employees may use the WWW services as required by the purposes of their business through the HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) browser tool.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)-the workers may be allowed to send and receive data and files are required for the purposes of the business.
Telnet-the employees may utilize the standard internet protocol that will require user strong authentication for contacts into the company initiated over the internet.
The management of the company reserves the right to delete or add services to the above list in accordance with the changes in the needs of the business as well as the manner in which conditions shall warrant. All additional services may be considered unwarranted, and the company deems them disallowed.
Procedures for Request and Approval of Internet Usage
The access the internet will be done with the sole purpose of supporting the activities of the company and to enable their users in performing their respective jobs. The workers of the company are required to read this policy document as a part of the process of requesting internet usage and access (Anandarajan and Simmers, 2003). The user is then required to sign statements of compliance with the terms and conditions provided. The users that will breach the provisions of this policy may be subject to disciplinary action that may include, but not limited to termination of their work contracts. It means, therefore, that access to the internet shall only be granted once the users shall satisfy compliance. The user of the internet requesting its access shall submit their IT access request form to the management in charge, which reserves the right to allow them to proceed as requested. The privileges granted to the users in terms of internet accessibility shall be discontinued upon violation of the provisions of this policy, the end of the service period of the worker, expiry of the contracts entered, or termination of the employee. In addition, the privileges shall only be bestowed once a fresh request has been placed, and user IDs that shall lie dormant for 30 days shall be revoked. The management will also reevaluate the privileges bestowed on users on an annual basis. The system administrators will also be required to revoke privileges that the users shall no longer be requiring in response to managerial responses.
The Policy
The use of the internet shall be approved only based on identified reasonable business needs, and shall be provided after considering the present job responsibilities of the worker. Employees that move to other sections or migrate in their job responsibilities will be required to submit new access request forms. Each user of the internet will be required to stick to the corporate principles relating to the usage of resources and exhibit proper judgment while using the internet. Any questions regarding this issue may be channeled to the IT Department and the management. Therefore, the employees may only use the internet for the following functions:
Researching
Referencing technical and regulatory information
Reviewing probable vendor websites to obtain production info
Downloading and upgrading IT software recommended by the IT Department
Communicating with the workers as well as non-workers only for business purposes
The use of company internet and IT resources for individual reasons without obtaining permission from the management and the IT Department might be considered a breach to the regulations provided in this policy. Each user of the internet resources of the company needs to be aware of the audit logs that the company network creates that reflects the request for service, the out-bound and in-bound addresses, and the periodic reviews to the log. Those users that opt to store or transfer their personal info that may include certificates, credit card numbers, and private keys among others over the company internet resources should do so at their own risk. The business shall not be held responsible for any loss of such information.
Employees are prohibited from using the company internet resources in:
Acquiring, storing, and distributing pornographic or illegal data as well as that, which depicts sex, race, and creed negatively.
Political activity, engagement in any types of collection of intelligence using the firm’s facility, fraud, and willful distribution of false and libelous info
Access of the firm’s info that falls outside the scope of an employee’s work
Unauthorized disclosure of information
Unauthorized downloads from the internet
Any types of gambling
Transmission of any sensitive, confidential, and proprietary information without authorization
Any usages that might seem to promote or provoke crime, civil liability, and other forms of legal violations
Playing video games and watching videos online including social media usage, etc.
The company management is therefore advised to establish able IT Departments that would ensure the execution of these policy guidelines.
References
Anandarajan, M., & Simmers, C. (Eds.). (2003). Managing web usage in the workplace: A social, ethical and legal perspective . IGI Global.
Anandarajan, M., Teo, T. S., & Simmers, C. A. (2014). The Internet and workplace transformation . Routledge.
