ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Employees plan to spend nearly two full working days (14.4 hours) on average shopping online from a work computer this holiday season, according to a survey conducted for ISACA, an association of 86,000 information technology professionals. One in 10 plans to spend more than 30 hours shopping online at work. Convenience (34%) and boredom (23%) are the biggest motivators.

Despite an economy expected to show flat or declining holiday sales, the second annual “Shopping on the Job: Online Holiday Shopping and Workplace Internet Safety” survey found that half of those surveyed plan to holiday shop online using a work computer.

Dangers of shopping online include viruses, spam and phishing attacks that invade the workplace, resulting in financial losses due to reduced productivity and destruction or compromise of corporate data.

Employees who shop online from work are also likely to engage in other high-risk behaviors. Survey participants bank online (51%) and click on e-mail links to shopping sites (40%) and links from social network sites (15%). Yet nearly one in five is not concerned that their online habits may affect their organization’s IT infrastructure.

“With the Internet available to most employees, it’s unrealistic to think companies can completely stop the use of work computers for online shopping,” said Robert Stroud, international vice president of ISACA. “Companies should educate employees about the risks and remind them of security policies. This is especially important now, when the convenience of shopping online is appealing to employees whose workloads may have doubled because of downsizing.”

In addition, more than one in 10 Americans with a mobile work device plan to use it for holiday shopping, leading to additional security issues and potential data loss.

“The lines between work and personal data are blurring as more people check work e-mail from their own phone or PDA, or use a work-supplied mobile device to shop or update their Facebook page. As our mobility increases, so does the risk to corporate IT systems,” said John Pironti, member of ISACA’s Certification Task Force.

A separate ISACA survey of 1,513 IT professionals conducted simultaneously shows a major gap between what IT and business professionals believe and what employees are planning when it comes to online shopping. Close to half (48%) of ISACA members surveyed believe employees will spend nine hours or fewer shopping online from a work computer—yet ISACA’s consumer survey shows that employees will average nearly two work days.

IT professionals are realistic about the potential costs of holiday shopping online from workplace computers. One in four estimates that their company will lose US $15,000 or more per employee in productivity.

“The reality gap between the IT department’s perceptions and employees’ online shopping behaviors actually represents an opportunity for IT,” said Paul Williams, member of ISACA’s Governance Advisory Council. “By educating employees and communicating common-sense online policies, IT can better protect one of an organization’s most critical assets—its IT systems.”

Tips

ISACA provides a list of tips to help employees and their organizations navigate this issue at www.isaca.org/news.

In early November, ISACA’s new Risk IT framework will be released as a free download at www.isaca.org/riskit.

Survey

The “Shopping on the Job” survey is based on polls of 1,210 US consumers and 1,513 IT professionals in nine countries. The M/A/R/C study results contain a margin of error of 3.9% at the 95% confidence level.