Policies needed for computer games at work

One
in four employees have gaming software installed on their PCs at work, research
finds.

A
survey of more than 400 employers by IT management firm Websense also finds
that more than half of firms’ IT managers report that employees access online
game sites at work.

Geoff
Haggart, vice-president of EMEA at Websense, advised companies to have policies
and software in place to manage the use of computer games at work by staff.

"The
online gaming explosion first hit the workplace because of prevalent broadband
internet access. But employees are now bringing in unauthorised games on CDs or
downloading free games via peer-to-peer networks, some of which have embedded
malicious mobile codes.

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“It
leads to increased demands on bandwidth and could lead to legal issues as a
result of software being copied or stored illegally on a company’s server,”
said Haggart.

By Ben Willmott