We all know how prevalent internet access is in the daily lives of companies and in the corporate work environment, particularly within teams. It's impossible to imagine office work being carried out without teams connected to the internet performing their tasks.
With all this connectivity, numerous benefits are generated for companies and the marketing process. Communication between teams, and with the market, is much easier and more efficient. Systems are becoming faster and more integrated, customer service becomes much more qualified, the productivity of the company and its employees increases, among many other benefits, which each company can leverage according to its needs.
However, leveraging technology and extracting the best results from it is always a matter of balancing investment in innovation and available resources (both labor and equipment), optimizing resource utilization, and managing resources in a way that avoids causing losses and problems for the business.
The risks that the internet poses to businesses are exactly what we will address in this article . Perhaps the most relevant is related to internet security, which involves data loss and the incidence of viruses. Other important points relate to employee productivity and focus, idle time, and poor resource allocation. Let's examine these items in more detail in the following lines.
Internet access security in companies
In most cases of infection on company devices, it happens when users end up accessing harmful websites through links or emails . These websites install viruses or malware that can cause various types of problems:
- To compromise the performance of computers or the network
- Loss, theft, or leakage of information
- Expenses for equipment and systems maintenance
- Idle time of resources and employees
Among these problems, it is worth highlighting information hijacking, known as Ransomware . In this type of attack, hidden programs are installed on computers, encrypting relevant business data and making it inaccessible. From there, they demand an access key to release access to the data, which is provided upon payment of a sum to the "hijackers".
This type of malware is usually installed when a user accesses a harmful website unknowingly and recklessly, fails to update their operating system, uses outdated or pirated software, or even opens some kind of malicious link.
Protection against these risks can be achieved with simple measures. Initially, it's important to train employees so they can identify potential threats. To do this, you can download this manual on safe internet use and share it with your team, so that everyone is concerned about this issue.
It is also necessary and of great importance to have some type of browsing control that prevents access to these harmful sites. This control can be achieved with robust solutions such as Firewall/Proxy, adapted solutions like Dell SonicWall and Fortinet FortiGate , or more modern and practical solutions like Lumiun Box , a service suitable for small and medium-sized businesses, aiming for reduced investment and simplified, intuitive management.
Waste of team time
Many studies show the extent to which employees waste time online, accessing social media, personal email, using smartphones, chatting with friends and family, visiting entertainment and sports websites, playing games, and much more. It is estimated that each employee spends an average of 72 minutes per day on personal online activities during work, representing 15% of their working time .
Converting this wasted time into monetary value, we can arrive at some very impactful figures. In a company with 30 employees working online, for example, where the average monthly cost per employee is R$ 2,000, considering a 15% waste of time , this would represent R$ 9,000 in wasted time per month.
If you also want to calculate the cost of poor internet usage in your company, you can use our time wastage calculator.
Lack of focus from employees
In addition to wasted time, another impact generated by the misuse of the internet by the team is a lack of focus. Employees may be constantly accessing their social media profiles or chatting on their smartphones. This reduces attention to the tasks being performed and can compromise the quality of the work delivered and, consequently, the quality of services provided by the company, potentially even negatively impacting the company's image with its clients.
Slow internet and poor performance of systems and equipment
In companies where there is no management regarding employee internet usage, it can end up becoming a problem, as some users may be consuming most of the network traffic by downloading files, watching videos or series, among other things.
Slow internet speeds on corporate networks can affect numerous company activities, such as system performance, email sending and receiving, communication, and customer service, among other things. This often occurs simply because some users consume the majority of resources. Therefore, this consumption needs to be identified so that measures can be taken to correct the problem.
To ensure your provider is delivering the contracted speed, it's recommended to use an internet speed monitoring system; good options include Speedtest and Fast.com . Another way to solve this problem is, again, through services that allow you to control internet usage, where you can filter and limit what each user or device can access by content categories, specific times, and even identify employees who are using internet resources improperly or consuming more resources than necessary.
Maintenance expenses and idle resources
Equally important are the expenses generated directly by the maintenance of systems and equipment. When a computer is infected with a virus, for example, there is the cost of solving this problem, which is usually the responsibility of IT professionals, generating financial expenses in addition to the cost of the team's idle time.
As we can see, just as the internet brings benefits, it can also generate some problems and even losses for your company. Therefore, it's necessary that business management includes measures to protect the company from risks, preventing these inconveniences from becoming part of daily operations.
To find the ideal solution for your company, it's necessary to precisely identify the exact needs and problems that need to be solved, evaluate the benefits of existing solutions, and from there find the best option with the best cost/benefit ratio. In most cases, it's not necessary to invest in expensive and complex technology solutions, which, in addition to the high investment, require highly specialized professionals.
As we discussed in the article, most security problems in companies stem from the recklessness and lack of knowledge of employees. It is the responsibility of professionals to use the internet productively. However, it is primarily the company's responsibility to educate the team about the risks and proper use of the network, and to monitor employee performance.
The company should also have a defined policy for internet and smartphone use and inform its employees about it. See a step-by-step guide on how to create a code of ethics and proper internet use at work and download the template document on internet usage policy in companies .
In addition to this, it is recommended to implement a service to protect browsing and prevent abuse by employees on the internet. To solve this problem practically and efficiently, Lumiun Box box . For more information, visit www.lumiun.com/box or contact our consultants .
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