When Ethics and IT Collide

jcatcw writes "IT workers have access to confidential data, and they can see what other employees are doing on their computers or the networks. This can put a good worker in a bad predicament. Bryan, the IT director for the U.S. division of German company, discovered an employee using a company computer to view pornography of Asian women and of children. He reported it but the company ignored it. Subsequently the employee was promoted and moved to China to run a manufacturing plant. That was six years ago but Bryan still regrets not going to the FBI. Other IT workers admit using their admin passwords to snoop through company systems. In a Ponemon Institute poll of more than 16,000 U.S. IT practitioners, 62% said they had accessed another person's computer without permission, 50% read confidential or sensitive information without a legitimate reason, and 42% said they had knowingly violated their company's privacy, security or IT policies. But in the absence of a professional code of ethics, companies struggle to keep corporate policies up to date."

Comments

Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat

[Nerdfest]

That would weed out all those unethical assholes in IT.

... and send them back to management and marketing where they belong!

Re:Why bother keeping corporate policies up to dat

[pegr]

That would weed out all those unethical assholes in IT.
 
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but I can read your email...

Re:Not entirely ethics

[trolltalk.com]

Come off it ... 70% of ALL porn-viewing is during working hours.

Your boss does it. Your coworkers do it. Get over it.

As long as you get your work done, who gives a shit? Better they look at pr0n than some site that advocates that "Jebus is comiong soon" and they start putting bible tracts on your keyboard ... THAT is a real invasion of a person's "space".