Restrict checking personal email

Restrict

Dubious and when in doubt tell us.
The excuse is what it is all about.
Most mail services offer with wishes!
Infection calls for section, so protection.
But what is the risk? Less work persists.

Since I perform IT roles on a contract basis I can't really enforce policies. I do suggest to management that policies be laid down (which I do), and they be enforced ... and 'NO PERSONAL EMAIL @ WORK' is right on the top of the list.
I find most places will enforce these policies only after I've walked back through the door a few times, and others just ignore policies totally.

We now have a policy that restricts it during business hours, but it is allowed outside of business hours.

We use Websense to support the policy. We put this in place because our internet usage logs showed that some people were wasting lots of time doing this during the day, everyday.

The funny thing is, that no one ever stays after business hours to check their email. They just go home.

We now have a policy that restricts it during business hours, but it is allowed outside of business hours.

We use Websense to support the policy. We put this in place because our internet usage logs showed that some people were wasting lots of time doing this during the day, everyday.

The funny thing is, that no one ever stays after business hours to check their email. They just go home.

We encourage users to use their private accounts Specifically Hotmail and Yahoo. We do so in order that they will use this private account when signing up for stuff (list-servs whatever) instead of the biz account. Spam reduction. We haven't had a problem with the viruses coming from Web based email. We do prohibit using Outlook Express to check POP3 private accounts due to viruses though

After getting two computers infected we blocked all the outside email access we could find in the logs.

As a rule, the only email accounts I allow are business related. I did have one guy who wanted his "home" email because he said he contacted people from home. The instant I did that, I noticed a HUGE increase in mail traffic to him. Norton detected 4-5 DIFFERENT virus's from his account a DAY. After investigating I found that he was getting email from his church groups and stuff that he does OUTSIDE of work. It had little legitimacy to work. I asked him to make sure that his correspondance was just regarding work...after that I put in a policy that stated NO OUTSIDE email will be used. Only email accounts that I create and administer will be used. I didn't get much flak about it. People seem to understand.

We do restrict personal e-mail accounts on all the employees' workstations. This way we do not have to scan POP mail in addition to Exchange server. We do allow it for the owner, who practically lives at the office, and remote users. In those cases, we do add POP mail scanning.