Zero Tolerance Policy

Is it acceptable for employees to use their company Computer, Mobile or Tablet, to watch PORN and join chatrooms with exclusively sexual content and to exchange images of a sexual nature?

This is a question I had to ask myself recently as CEO, when confronted with a senior member of staff using a company device to access porn and register with adult chatrooms on the internet.

Do we as managers and business owners need to worry about what our staff are up to when they are not at work?

Do employers have the right to get involved and take the moral high ground, or are staff participating in these activities entitled to their privacy?

I’ve been forced to ask myself these tough questions and after serious consideration, revisiting our employee manual, as well as talking to leading Cybercrime specialists, I concluded that I absolutely have an obligation to protect the company, stakeholders, and our employees, if a member of staff puts the safety of the company in jeopardy.

Porn sites and adult chatrooms are notorious for being used as ‘click-bait’ for the dark internet. Hackers access your company network to spread viruses, ransomware and other ‘trojan-horses’, which can disrupt your company operations, and prevent access to company data within seconds.

Sex chatrooms are about engaging with people you don’t know, where you exchange explicit images, by simply clicking on an image file to see more. The recipient doesn’t know the person sending the image, so how do they know it’s safe to click and what could be hidden in the file?

As a security company, our focus on cybercrime is very high, as it should be, but all businesses are at risk. Hackers do not care what industry you are in, every company is vulnerable, and the only way out is to pay a lot of money in ransom to get your business data back online.

In the world today, there is a very high focus on Cybercrime and how to protect our business against external threats. But how can we protect ourselves from internal threats, when staff open the doors to the dark internet and leave us vulnerable to hackers?

1. The first step is to ensure all staff are educated and understand the risks they pose to their employer, if they connect devices to the company network that have been used to surf porn sites.
2. The next step is to ensure your employee policy is fully updated and clearly states why this activity is prohibited and the consequences if a member of staff violates this policy.
3. Finally, all company virus protection programs must be installed on computers and mobile devices and all updates must be run as and when required.

The policy must be consistent at all levels in the hierarchy.  Whether you are a senior manager or a junior on the floor, every staff member needs to know that the company has a ZERO tolerance policy. If you violate the rules and put the company at risk, your employment will be terminated with immediate effect.

In my case, I lost a business colleague and senior manager, which was regrettable, but was nothing compared to the risk of losing my company due to reckless behavior.

On a positive note, we have used this incident to completely re-evaluate our network set-up, scan for viruses and further tighten our security. Cybercrime is a real threat, and one all company owners need to deal with to prevent potential disruptions, or even a bankrupt business, in the worst-case scenario.

During the next couple of months, I’ll share some of my experiences regarding Cybercrime and Internal & External Threats. Please feel free to comment on this article and share your thoughts.

• Was I right to fire my senior manager, or should he have received a warning?
• How serious do you think the risk of Cybercrime is to your organization?

Jes Nagel

Founder and CEO at Fibrenetix

About Jes Nagel:

Jes Nagel is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and a leading innovator in the storage industry. While pursuing his studies at the University of Copenhagen, Jes, along with two colleagues, developed a file transfer software called "Supermove", which kindled his interest in moving large data while incorporating highly efficient compression technology. This interest became the foundation of Jes's career and the backbone of video optimization in Fibrenetix's storage and server products.

Jes's professional journey led him to strengthen his international business acumen while managing European markets for technology giants such as Microsoft, Fox Software, and Ashton-Tate. In 1995, he founded Fibrenetix in the UK and became a trailblazer in PATA and SATA based RAID technology. Today, Fibrenetix is a globally renowned provider of storage solutions, serving key markets in the Middle East, Japan, China, Europe, and the United States. Notable global customers, such as Sony, Google, BBC, Siemens, and Honeywell, use Fibrenetix's Video Storage and Server products.

Headquartered in Denmark, Fibrenetix remains one of the few European manufacturers of high-performance, cost-effective storage and video servers. Our world-class products have earned them a reputation as a trusted and reliable partner in the industry.

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