In a study conducted by Security Audit and Control Solutions (SACS), it was found the existence of pornography on company-owned computers is a frequent occurrence, the company said on Friday.
SACS gathered data from Internet access history from various sources, in the study that included more than 20 000 users, over a period from 1 July 2004 to 30 August 2005.
"Many organisations employ content scanning solutions whereby they can manage the users' access to Internet sites that may be in contravention to the accepted acceptable use policy (AUP). These content scanning solutions use a master database to determine if the site visited is not in line with the AUP and, if it is not, access to the site could be blocked and the action logged," the report says.
However, the report stated that, as new sites are created, the lag in classifying new pornography sites allows some users to visit these despite the company stance and policies.
"What I found is that the urge to view sites of explicit nature grows over time. This is due to the 'user' becoming an 'addict'," says SACS CEO Mervin Pearce.
Peaks on Fridays
He explains that, for the results of the pornography study, an "Explicit Factor" or EF was created to depict the level of addiction. The data was merged from various sources and a standard analysis of user activity is used as the baseline. The results were taken of the number of bytes or number of connections, depending on the analysis.
The report found that the number of visits to pornography sites commonly peaks on a Friday. The interpretation of this result could be that the user would like to obtain enough 'erototoxins' before the weekend, when they may not have access to the same 'supplier' (the Internet).
Erototoxins are defined as an addictive drug cocktail of testosterone, oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin, with a measurable organic effect on the brain.
The SACS report also states that the logs indicate another peak on Sundays is primarily users coming into work to surf the Internet without the fear of being 'caught-in-the-act' and at the same time possibly claiming overtime.
Psychological effect
The study also analysed a psychological effect of erototoxins on the human mind. After a complete scan, the top 20 users were targeted and their surfing habits to pornography sites analysed.
"The analysis of graphs over the 13 months indicates that the selected users would acquire an erototoxin 'fix' as soon as they arrive at the office. A erototoxin 'fix' would be taken just before lunch and finally another erototoxin 'fix' would be taken just before leaving to go home," the report says.
This tendency is followed by most users accessing pornography sites and even after warnings and disciplinary actions, users with a high level of addition will still fall into the trap of "abuse".
Another finding is the baseline-shifting of the EF. If the user is a new incumbent to an organisation and is exposed to pornography at a level EF1, it may result in the user moving on to an EF level 2. This visual stimulation results in erototoxins being released and depending on the individual, only images at a higher EF level will result in the same level of 'pleasure' being attained. Thus the data supports a gradual move from EF1 to EF4 to support the user's addiction.
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