Firms fail to control World Cup access

IT professionals are losing productivity because they are failing to control employee access to football on the internet, according to a security company.

Almost half of the IT managers questioned said that they do not control staff access to live streaming or downloads, according to a web poll by Sophos. 

Only 15 per cent of the respondents prevent live streaming, while 11 per cent block all related applications and nine per cent track any software downloads.

One fifth of IT managers use a combination of these methods to control their employees' World Cup computer usage.

"World Cup live streaming and software downloading is certain to be rife for those organisations that let their employees get away with it," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"Allowing users to more or less do as they please online seriously exposes their computers and the network to infectious attack, so it's astonishing that so many organisations are not doing more to control this kind of PC usage."

Cluley warned that every organisation needs an IT security policy in place, and that they need to enforce that policy.

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