HELP im in the pooh up to my neck

daniel.thomas4

Hello,

to cut a long story short a member of staff used one of the works wifi connections with his own laptop to download 15gb of films and data.

It was unlucky for me he used mine when on my day off... but thats not the problem. due to his actions the laptop was taken to be looked into and what the found has got me into trouble.

all members of staff have work related emails sent to there home email address. As this is the one needed when starting with the company.
For the last 2 yrs I have recived spam from a russian dating site that I can not block because the email address sent from is always a little bit diffrent.
2 days before the laptop was take i opened one by mistake insted of my rota...closed it straigt down and open my rota.

But work have found this on the history and have flipped....i explained in a investigation what happened and it was not my fault but they really seem to want me out the door because of this... my area manager is doing his best to defend me because I work when I go to work not mess about and am one of the top guys in the team but HR are coming down on him too, looks like I could be out of a job

any help any one??

Emmzi

what does your company IT policy say

who should you have reported this spam to

why didn't you

was it just a dating site or was it in fact porny?

SarEl

I agree that we would need to know what your IT poicy says. But I am somewhat confused. This is a works lap top but you must use a personal e-mail address for work purposes? Pretty certain that no employer could possibly enforce that one!

So here's the question - if this is your personal e-mail address, then they cannot dictate what you receive or open in your personal time. They (or I, or anyone else) may not approve of your choice of mail, but that's your business. I'm not saying that you wanted to receive or open this e-mail - simply that if you did - so what? They can't dictate your personal mail in a personal e-mail account. And how would they know when you opened it - during works time or not. Few e-mail systems log the time that an e-mail was opened, as opposed to the time it was sent or replied to. They could have a policy which says that you can't use the lap top for personal use - but then how could they justify forcing you to use a personal e-mail for works use on their lap top?

I can't really see what the employer can do. Unless they have you logged on and browsing !!!!!! or dating sites during work hours, I can't see the issue.

Judas

SarEl wrote: »

I agree that we would need to know what your IT poicy says. But I am somewhat confused. This is a works lap top but you must use a personal e-mail address for work purposes? Pretty certain that no employer could possibly enforce that one!

So here's the question - if this is your personal e-mail address, then they cannot dictate what you receive or open in your personal time. They (or I, or anyone else) may not approve of your choice of mail, but that's your business. I'm not saying that you wanted to receive or open this e-mail - simply that if you did - so what? They can't dictate your personal mail in a personal e-mail account. And how would they know when you opened it - during works time or not. Few e-mail systems log the time that an e-mail was opened, as opposed to the time it was sent or replied to. They could have a policy which says that you can't use the lap top for personal use - but then how could they justify forcing you to use a personal e-mail for works use on their lap top?

I can't really see what the employer can do. Unless they have you logged on and browsing !!!!!! or dating sites during work hours, I can't see the issue.

The OP appears to have accessed an internet link by my understanding though which is where the problem arises.

Most IT policies you would suspect ban accessing such sites using work equipment.

The OP's post doesnt make sense though; they wouldnt have multiple Wi-fi signals for each staff member. Maybe different logins etc but that again would be a breach.

I suspect the OP is being screwed for a multitude of minor IT breaches as a cumulative factor rather than one item.

maninthestreet

I think it was a case of the OP's laptop being used by his colleague to download 15GB worth of film/video. If the company insists on employees using their own personal email for work related matters, I can't see how they can complain when an employee reads a non-work related email as a result, even if it was read using a company laptop on company time.

SarEl

Judas wrote: »

The OP appears to have accessed an internet link by my understanding though which is where the problem arises.

Most IT policies you would suspect ban accessing such sites using work equipment.

The OP's post doesnt make sense though; they wouldnt have multiple Wi-fi signals for each staff member. Maybe different logins etc but that again would be a breach.

I suspect the OP is being screwed for a multitude of minor IT breaches as a cumulative factor rather than one item.

That is why I asked for clarification - because the OP does not make sense, and I was aware that the WiFi connection would not, in itself (unless certain personal passwords etc were used) show up who used it. But if this was the case, then "clicking an internet link" would have shown up on the web access record - as did the downloading of films etc - rather than being shown up when the lap top was taken for checking (yes, it could have been on the internet history - but physical possession of the computer wouldn't be required to access that anyway). And I don't undertsand why the computer was taken for checking if the computer wasn't used in the first place!

But all of that still doesn't get away from the difficulties of an employer banning an employee from personal use of a company computer (even for purposes which would normally be considered unacceptable) whilst simultaneously demanding that the employee uses a personal e-mail address (to which they may have any mail they wish sent - it's theirs and not the employers) which may include "unacceptable" mail. Because that very process means that there is a risk of exactly what the OP calims has happened happening - that they inadvertantly open a piece of mail (which was sent to them personally) whilst at work.

On the other hand, if the OP clarifies that the particular "mail" was open for three hours, then they are indeed in trouble - and on their own!

SarEl

maninthestreet wrote: »

I think it was a case of the OP's laptop being used by his colleague to download 15GB worth of film/video. If the company insists on employees using their own personal email for work related matters, I can't see how they can complain when an employee reads a non-work related email as a result, even if it was read using a company laptop on company time.

That isn't what the OP says - "a member of staff used one of the works wifi connections with his own laptop to download 15gb of films and data."

Vader123

Do you have your own username and password?

If so was this shared? I can't see how it can be a problem with a laptop if multiple people use it, its down to activity done on a user account.

Vader

daniel.thomas4

thanks for the replies.

As stated in one post...I dont have my own WIFI login.. a co worker used the wifi passcode to use the company internet with his own laptop that he decided to bring to work,
work seen the use and removed the laptop to see if the mis use had taken place on the works laptop.

the problem has come from the fact that I opened a spam email that as stated in one other post sent me to this website.. THANK GOD not !!!!!!, But a website I would never view none the less. This is breach of company policy and how im in trouble...

Also the laptops never leave work. they have choose to use laptops insted of desktops for what reason i dont know....so the email was opened during works hours. But it is my own email address that I had to supply when I joined the company as you get a lot of work related emails in a day.

getmore4less

I hope they don't do any confidential communication via email.

Work related emails on external servers is not secure, use of multilple external servers is just increasing the exposure and risks.

Access to any site linked in any email in your account that you have to use for work purposes should be given leeway from any internet policy.

SarEl

daniel.thomas4 wrote: »

Also the laptops never leave work. they have choose to use laptops insted of desktops for what reason i dont know....so the email was opened during works hours. But it is my own email address that I had to supply when I joined the company as you get a lot of work related emails in a day.

This still doesn't really answer the question. People who get a lot of works e-mails normally get a works e-mail address through the company account. Why are you using your own personal e-mail address - because an employer cannot require you to register or own a personal e-mail account for their business use. If this is your own personal e-mail account, then how the e-mail got in the inbox isn't relevant - you can receive any (legal) e-mail you want and you do not have to account for it. So accidentally clicking on a link, whether the e-mail for spam or not, cannot easily be used against you unless you failed to close down the lionk immediately. Like I said - three hours on the site might be somewhat hard to explain, but three second wouldn't be at all.