10 mins a day email misuse 'costing companies millions'
The Small Firms Association (SFA) has warned that businesses are facing a growing problem in relation to email and internet abuse by employees.
SFA assistant director Patricia Callan said that employees who misuse email or the internet for only 10 minutes each day can cost Irish business more than €575m a year, in pure productivity terms.
They may also expose their company to "even greater costs, such as libel actions, inadvertent entry into binding contracts, breaches of copyright legislation and exposure to sexual harassment and bullying claims", she said, adding that many companies will face future legal action if they fail to have adequate safeguards in place to protect their staff, customers, and the general public from the problem.
"The most important thing for companies to realise is that they will be held to be vicariously liable for the actions of their employees, even if these actions take place without the company’s consent," said Ms Callan.
She added a leading British insurance company was forced to pay £450,000 (€659,000) damages to a small financial house, which had gone out of business, due to a chain email originated by one of their employees on the company’s email system, which speculated that the business was unsound and which was sent throughout London.
SFA analysis shows that 57% of small businesses have no e-mail & internet abuse policy in place, despite the fact that they will be held legally liable if their employees misuse their IT systems.
