With even legitimate websites causing potential problems, the threat to company security by employee visits to streaming, downloading or social media sites is even greater.

Spending  time at work online is not just a security threat but also causes bandwidth, legal and productivity problems.

[Tweet “In 2015, 1 in 3 of the most popular sites on the net contained #malware, #spam, or #botnets”]

One solution to dealing with these issues is to block access to certain websites from company computers and phones.

Benefits

Blocking website access for workers can have a number of positive effects on your workplace:

Security

Limiting access to certain sites can help ensure that work computers are less at risk to malware, viruses and other forms of hacking.

Media or software downloaded from the wrong sources can put computers at risk.

Additionally, malware and viruses that are increasingly distributed via social media can be avoided.

Bandwidth

Streaming or downloading audio and video can put significant pressure on your business’s internet bandwidth compromising legitimate business activities.

Limiting access to streaming sites such as Netflix, Pandora and YouTube or torrent file sharing sites can ensure that employees won’t clog up your bandwidth.

Illegal Activities

File sharing and torrent sites, such as PirateBay, allow users to download or upload copyright material illegally.

Stopping access to such sites ensures that employees don’t act illegally with your work computers and put your company at risk.

Productivity

Nearly 15% of 25-34 year old UK workers wasted between 5 and 8 hours of their working week on online shopping, according to research from Watch Shop.

Blocking popular personal shopping and entertainment sites such as Ebay, Netflix or Buzzfeed should remove temptations.

Similarly, while some companies or departments have a legitimate need to access social media, for example marketing department, in many instances limiting access from business devices should help to curtail distractions.

Choosing What To Block

One of the best ways to decide what to block is to see what sites employees are using in the first place.

Employee monitoring software, such as KnowIT, allows managers to see exactly what internet sites employees access, how much time they’re spending on them and where they’re downloading files from.

Armed with these daily activity reports, managers can decide which sites to limit access to on an individual, department or company basis.

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Has your business been affected by employees using unproductive websites? Leave a comment below and let us know.