Is your workplace internet secure?
Many moons ago, internet came in one flavour, dial-up. It lived under lock and key, only switched on at the most critical moment to stop the phone line being busy for too long. These days most people have a broadband connection that is always switched on. But a recent new law has raised an interesting issue - how do you know who’s using your internet?
Recently parliament passed a new law, the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act, which makes it illegal to download or share files that you haven’t paid for. It operates based on the idea that the owner of the account is responsible for what gets downloaded, and if illegal downloading is happening, it’s the fault of the account holder for not keeping their internet users in line. If somebody else is using your internet, tough cookies, the account owner is the one responsible who gets penalised. It’s a pretty big penalty too - up to $15,000, in fact.
Really, think about it for a moment - unless you monitor who’s using your data (most people don’t do this) it’s difficult to know for sure if you and your colleagues are the only ones using your internet.
Even if you connect to the internet with a cable plugged in, you may have a router that is sending out a wireless signal to anybody within 50 metres of your workplace, 24 hours a day. Unless your wireless internet is secure, anyone can use your internet connection to download anything they like, getting away scot-free and leaving you with the liability!
The good news is, it’s not too late to make sure your internet is secure. If you’re not sure about how to do this, let Firecrest Systems take care of it for you. Contact us today!