A compromise of your personal computer at home is not so bad depending on heavily you use it for really personal and important stuff. But a compromise at work is a different kettle of fish. Employers are constantly on the war path against employees who use work computers to browse personal emails and other personal data. This is the reality for employers and a recent study has sort of helped to confirm the fear of every employers.
According to a recent study in which bad and spammy links were simulated on work computers, a staggering 43% of employees clicked on links that took them to phishing sites and malware. According to the CEO of the company (Knowbe4.com) who conducted the study, many small businesses are simply in the dark about how susceptible they are to employees using work computers to browse personal stuff. Such a compromise means that very sensitive data can often end up in the wrongs, costing companies thousands of dollars at time.
The study showed clearly the vulnerability, but did very little to show how best to combat the associated problems. Right now employers are caught between outright ban of email at work time and the buying of sophisticated equipment to help with monitoring. Either way, the work environment is nothing without a computer so the struggle to keep those computers clean will go on for a long time.
Do you think employees who infect work computers with malware should be fired from their jobs? Share your thoughts below.