Brian Ashe Quoted in Business Insurance
"Workplace IT Risks Getting Personal"

Brian Ashe was quoted in the article, "Workplace IT Risks Getting Personal," published December 13, 2009 in Business Insurance. The article reported on issues employers face by allowing employees to use their personal computers at work. According to the article, this is a trend that employers should approach with considerable caution. Brian noted that unregulated computer usage “is an invitation to all manner of mischief." He suggested that before permitting employees to bring in their own computers, firms must have in place “a very sound written policy and some mechanisms of enforcing that policy through their IT department” to adequately manage security issues.

Brian also noted in the article that litigation is another concern. He explained that if the home computer is sought in discovery, “the hard drive would have to be produced in the litigation,” which means the employee's private data “would be snooped through and looked at by third parties,” including the employer, judges and forensic computer experts. He added, “That's a danger for employees that many don't consider until they are stuck in the litigation scenario.”