The good news: your employees likely won’t be using quite as much work time to shop online for holiday gifts this year. The bad news: those who do are increasingly willing to engage in risky behavior using your company’s computers.
These risky behaviors could make your company vulnerable to attacks from computer viruses, phishing scams, and malware attacks, according to a survey conducted by Information Systems Audit and Control Association, (ISACA), an information technology professional trade group.
“Employees who shop online reduce productivity – especially from Black Friday through mid-December, when 71 percent of them make their holiday purchases – and open the door to social engineering and phishing attacks, malware and information breaches that can cost companies millions and inflict severe damage to their reputation,” said John Pironti, security advisor with ISACA.
Employees expect to spend an average of six hours shopping from a work computer or mobile device this holiday season versus 14 hours in 2009, according to the survey. But a sizable group (20 percent) plan to spend nine hours or more shopping on the clock.
The big concern for business owners is the increase this year in the number of employees who say they are willing to take risky actions online, such as clicking on an e-mail link or providing their work e-mail address when shopping online.
The article goes on to say that, in a separate global survey of 837 U.S. businesses and IT professionals who are members of ISACA, conducted during the same time period, shows that two-thirds of respondents believe their organization loses $1,000 or more per employee as a result of shopping online during work hours in November and December. Approximately one-third put that number at $15,000 or higher.