Illegal file sharing, surfing the net for pornography and online gambling are the most common themes for municipality-owned computer users in central Sweden’s Jonkoping, according to recent analysis.
Over a one month period, Jonkoping officials measured how students and employees utilised some 8,000 computers across the municipality and were surprised by the results released last week, says The Local.
On occasion, up to 80 percent of the internet capacity was being utilised for file sharing; frequently for illegally-shared files.
Officials were also surprised that students and employees would spend so much time visiting websites that featured gambling, gaming, pornography, weapons and racist messages. “I would have never thought the problem would be this widespread,” said Martin Andreae, Jonkoping’s city director.
A total of 1,300 hours was spent visiting inappropriate websites in the month-long survey, equating to four full-time employment positions. Further evidence that the city’s computers were being used for unsuitable purposes was made evident by the high rate of anonymous use or attempts to cover computers’ IP addresses.
“If we had realised how big the problem was, we would have done something to address it sooner,” said Andreae.
Jonkoping has now scheduled technology upgrades worth an estimated SEK 500,000 to block inappropriate websites and allow managers to have increased visibility of how employees use the internet.
“evidence that the city’s computers were being used for unsuitable purposes was made evident by the high rate of anonymous use or attempts to cover computers’ IP addresses”
That logic is equivalent to saying buying goods using (anonymous) cash instead of a credit card is evidence of buying illegal goods. I assume the report’s author is not a member of Mensa…