One In Ten Brits Watch Porn At Work

Mike Moore,

Blue Coat study finds employees taking cyber security risks that put their company in danger

British workers are increasingly pushing the limits of what they believe they can get away with doing at work, according to a new study which reveals some worrying workplace habits.

A report from security company Blue Coat found that the UK came top in terms of the number of workers admitting to viewing adult content on work devices.

This follows the recent revelation that four judges had got the sack for viewing pornography at work.

shocked at computer ©Goodluz/shutterstock.comNaughty naughty

Overall, nearly one in ten (nine percent) of UK workers admitting to viewing adult content at work, compared to France and Germany at five percent and two percent respectively, with the global average at six percent.

In other worrying habits, the study found that one out of five UK employees open email attachments from people they don’t know – even though 78 percent said they knew it posed a risk to their business. However, French and German counterparts believe email attachments are less risky and they opened less unsolicited emails.

One third of UK employees (33 percent) also said they had downloaded apps without the approval of their IT team even though two-thirds (66 percent) of respondents knew it was wrong.

“The dichotomy between the awareness and actions of the employees found in this research should trouble businesses all over the world. While IT professionals seek to prevent cyber-attacks occurring, their colleagues’ behaviour is jeopardising employers’ cyber security and ultimately their jobs,” said Robert Arandjelovic, director of products for Blue Coat, EMEA.

“The consumerisation of IT and social media carry mixed blessings to enterprises. It is no longer feasible to prevent employees from using them, so businesses need to find ways to support these technology choices while simultaneously mitigating the security risks.”

All four of the UK’s biggest Internet providers offer some form of filtering software, although take-up has been rather low. An Ofcom study last July found that just four percent of Virgin Media customers, five percent of BT and eight percent of Sky customers have opted in.What do you know about Internet security?

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