THE CYBER HOUSE RULES

ARTICLE

THE CYBER HOUSE RULES

THE STORY SO FAR…

The Accidental IT Guy was in a terrible funk. After the initial elation of getting his shot at the IT HelpDesk, everything had turned into an unmitigated disaster. No ticket was too simple for him to make worse. Had he blown his big chance? What if they found out that he had lied on his CV and that his previous job was not in Silicon Valley, but rather as Deputy Chief for Suitcases at 10 Downing Street? Desperate, he started rifling through his desk drawers. Under the standard jumble of old charging leads, multi-coloured network cables and a phone that some Associate had dropped down the toilet at Telford Magistrates Court, he found a ring binder…

And, dear reader, the rest as they say is history. As the latest guardian of The Cyber House Rules, our protagonist could do no wrong. All he had to do was whisper the magical words “turn it off and turn it on again” and everyone’s Outlook connected to mail servers, long-forgotten billable time was suddenly retrieved from the cache meaning underperforming fee-earners were able to hit their targets.

A wise man once said “with great power comes great responsibility”, so if you can handle the truth, read on as the Shropshire Law Society reveals the secrets held therein.

Rule 156: Do not use you work email for personal use

Take this person who calls IT to say:

“Hi IT, I’ve just requested a password reset for my Tinder account, it hasn’t been held up by the email filter by any chance?” (spoiler alert: it has, and the IT team have signed in as you, changed your profile picture from the photo of 15 years ago and 15kg lighter to the photo that your firm have used for their website and then set you up with YoungAtHeart1961).

But surely it’s more secure than a gmail account because IT are protecting this email?

Not necessarily so. Law firms are perceived as a very tempting target by hackers. And even if it was more secure from a cybersecurity point of view, are you really happy for a group of guys who are stuck in a windowless room knowing absolutely everything about your life?

Don’t I have a right to privacy?

Not if it’s a work email. Come to think of it, you might as well assume that HR and anyone with managerial responsibility has actually read all these emails.

So I might as well just stand outside the office in my lunch-break and broadcast all my emails?

Pretty much.

Oh well, at least it keeps the HelpDesk amused:

Errr, no. IT can spend up to 20% of the working day filtering dodgy emails – some could cause existential threats to the firm – it can be tedious and stressful. Trawling through a screen of special offers for you from Victoria’s Secret is not just incredibly annoying, it leaves images that are seared on your retinae for far longer than anyone would wish for.

Is it really that harmful?

Actually it gets worse. Using your work email for personal use makes it easier for malicious parties to build up a profile of you that helps them to target you, or your firm, more effectively.

Here in IT we can just about get away with saying:

“I’m sorry to see from the email that the vets sent you that your hamster has had its leg amputated”.

What we don’t say (no matter how tempting):

Loved the photos from Jemima’s sports day (creepy)

How did your date with YoungAtHeart1961 go? (salacious)

How did your date with YoungAtHeart1962 go? (puerile)

How did your date with YoungAtHeart1963 go? (I think we all get the idea…)

YoungAtHeart1961

Mike Lim

Mike Lim is Legal Document Developer at Lanyon Bowdler solicitors.