E-Mail Abuse Ruins Employee Holidays

It wasn’t the much-hyped Y2K bug that ruined the holidays of computer users in industry and government. It was misuse of e-mail to send “inappropriate” and “offensive” messages.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas 1999, two cases of employee discipline were widely publicized. In the first, the New York Times announced it had fired 23 employees and disciplined and undisclosed number of others at a Norfolk, VA, office. In the second, the US Navy announced that it had disciplined over 500 employees at a logistics base in Pennsylvania. Though none of them were fired, some did receive suspensions as the result of an extensive investigation.

In the Times case, a memo from Cynthia Augustine, senior vice president for human resources, stated that “While the company does not routinely monitor the e-mail communications of employees, we do investigate when a violation of the company's e-mail policy is reported." It went on that all the fired employees “all transmitted clearly inappropriate and offensive material, which left no doubt as to the discipline required.”

E-mail has become a part of the lives of the military, civil servants, and corporate employees. An increasing number have two accounts, one at home and one at work.

It is important to remember that the one at work is one a computer provided by the government or by your employer. Those computers are to be used for the employer’s purposes, not for recreation Generally the employer has the right to inspect the computer—including reading e-mail and other files—to insure abuses are not taking place. Prohibited activities include:

• Accessing pornography, which creates a hostile work environment for colleagues of the opposite sex;
• Accessing child pornography, which is illegal and can result in criminal prosecutions for civilians as well as military;
• Conducting a personal business;
• Committing theft or fraud;
• Intruding into unauthorized, whether or your own network or someone else’s (both are considered hacking);
• Engaging in political activity; and
• Forwarding chain letters.

If you have questions about computer security, contact the computer systems security officer for your organization.