The Teckki Says

Later this month (click on graphic to download flyer), I will participate on a panel discussing computer and Internet Security to parents, students and community members. Although I jokingly refer to Internet Security as an oxymoron, it is a very serious issue. As the owner of a web design firm and a father of two adolescents, I am keenly aware of the issues encountered in terms of security and safety on the Internet.

One of the first ways I tried to address this with my kids was either to limit or prohibit access to some websites. This had limited success at home, but at assumed safe places, such as public libraries with clearly defined childrens areas, there were major problems. The kids often loaded up a game that many of them played on the library's computers. They later accessed it from home. It was as much as an eye opener as was the scantily-dressed women appearing in the ads in the page margins. Then it made sense, the library cannot filter everything, and if they could, they would limit the access of adults.

My next attempt was to ban technology as a punishment for infractions. This failed miserably. My office is near my residence, so I am around my kids more often. They are now older and mobile. When one of the kids got in trouble, I applied some advice I got from other parents by taking his cell phone to break a bad habit in the making. Well, I broke first. I wasn't just limiting his ability to communicate with his friends, I was limiting my ability to communicate with him. Send him to the store? He needs the phone. Send him to the library? He needs the phone. You get the picture. This became less of a punishment, and more of a safety issue. He got the phone back rather quickly.

My last attempt was to educate them more, and monitor them less. This is very scary, because you have to build trust. You also have to address issues quickly when trust is broken, sometimes with penalties, but always with more education. I found that this works for two reasons - one is that children understand trust, and two, you cannot monitor everything or buy enough monitoring technology to cover all of the bases (see the library story above).

When you think about your organization, you may quickly see parallels. You would never think of taking technology from an employee. They simply wouldn’t be able to do their jobs. However, we occasionally take the monitoring route. You have a responsibility to ensure technology is being properly used. But has the block, ban and monitor methods really worked, or have they worked you and your checkbook more?

You also have to consider the fact that your employees bring technology into the workplace. The devices they purchase for personal use come with them to work, such as cell phones, wireless devices and eReaders. An employee can send or show messages and materials without ever violating your bans of improper usage of your computers and communication networks.

I recall a couple of incidents when I worked at the Sears Tower in Chicago during one year of March Madness and the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Office pools were rampant, and employees were using 900-prefix numbers to get updates on scores and their bracket standings. A month later, the bills came, and many departments had several thousand dollars in charges to these numbers. The manager decided to block these prefixes. A year later, we were experiencing tremendous wind gusts, and in turn, severe building swings. That same manager wanted someone to call to get updates on weather conditions. Guess what? The weather number was also a 900-prefix. In trying to block the bad, he also blocked the good.

Whether it is your children or your employees, you may want to think about investing a lot more in education, and a lot less in block, ban and monitor technology. People will find ways to defeat the technology to get at what they want, and that brain power should be used for more productive tasks. Besides, you spent a pile of money on technology. Do you really want to spend just as much to limit those same employees?

Come see us at the presentation on April 24th. Click on the graphic above for more information.