Business Use of the Internet

1
Business Use of the Internet

• Thomas Lapp
• Computer Sciences Corporation
• Newark, Delaware

2
Defined

• Company systems are to be used exclusively for
  company business purposes

3
Computer Ethics Issue

• What constitutes company business purposes?
• Who defines what that is?
• Who enforces the policy?

4
Possible Solutions

• Honesty policy -- expect employees not to go
  where they should not
• highest hit rates at playboy.com come from
  Fortune 500 businesses
• Enforcement of flagrant abusers
• monitor firewall for major abuse and discipline
  these employees

5
Possible Solutions (Contd)

• Lock out sites
• risk that someone will have legitimate need to
  access a site
• who maintains the lock-out list?

6
Conclusions

• Determining business-use is not always black and
  white
• Trying to enforce a policy based on shades of
  gray is even more difficult