Net closes on bosses surfing porn By INGA GILCHRIST 19jan02 MELBOURNE executives are being sprung by hi-tech computer audits checking web pornography. The latest software checks mean foolish high-flyers who dabble in dirty Internet sites are being sprung red-handed by their employers and sacked on the spot. A partner in employee relations at law firm Freehills, John Cooper, said workers from the mailroom to the boardroom were clicking their way into trouble. "There is nothing typical in this area," he said. "I've had managing directors and directors who have been terminated for this. That sort of makes you wonder." Mr Cooper said executives hide their smutty surfing in many ways and were embarrassed when they were discovered. "There's usually some amazing story as to why it's there, and they usually claim it's their right to have it - that it's private, that sort of thing," Mr Cooper said. Federal privacy commissioner Malcolm Crompton said staff who thought their office computer files were private were deluding themselves. He told of a worker who called in the IT gurus because his computer had seized up. The reason? It was jammed full of porn. And while surfing for sex on company time happens in many industries and at all levels, legal experts say tall poppies hide it better than their underlings. Associate at legal firm Maurice Blackburn Cashman Simone Bingham deals daily with the cases of sacked senior executives. Most of the sackings for porn offences happen to blue-collar and mid-level workers, she said, possibly because they are more likely to be sprung. "Executives are not subject to the same type of supervision as people further down the food chain," she said. Often the discovery of sleazy sites on computer files is used as a way to give an unpopular executive the boot, according to employment lawyers. Employment lawyer Rob Jackson, from legal firm Slater and Gordon, represents sacked executives and has had two cases in as many years that hinged on the discovery of a cache of sleazy files. He said the workers in both cases had had bad relationships with their bosses and the argy-bargy over "jiggy-jiggy" files were used to show them the door. "I suspect in each case if there was a good relationship the employer would have been more accommodating and, say, conducted counselling or issued a final warning," Mr Jackson said. Hiding the body of evidence has become tougher for cyber sleazebags during the past 12 months, computer security experts say, as gate-keeping and auditing software has streaked ahead. Many large companies, for example, now have firewalls that prevent the acceptance of any e-mail with a picture. This means more busts will be in small and medium-size firms that cannot afford the gate-keeping software. And if you're found out as a serial smut-surfer, expect the trapdoor to open abruptly under you. Ms Bingham and Mr Cooper said most employment contracts have immediate dismissal as the consequence of getting caught downloading pornography. http://heraldsun.news.com.au/ pic of anna Kournikova trying to arouse professor rat.
