The cyber security risks associated with online shopping at work, and how businesses can mitigate them. 

Research conducted by VoucherCodes and Global Data predicts that UK shoppers will spend over £8.71billion on the ‘Black Friday weekend’ between the 25^th and 28^th of November, as consumers make the most of price cuts ahead of a financially difficult Christmas period.

Beaming’s own survey revealed that almost 1/5th of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping activity was to be conducted by people at work, impacting on productivity and increasing the potential for cyber security problems. With schedules getting ever-busier, the temptation to sneak in a bit of online Christmas shopping at work remains high throughout the end of the year.

According to Beaming’s snap poll…

• 41% of people polled planned to start their online shopping sprees during office hours (9am – 5pm) on Black Friday, with a third of these beginning at 9am. 35% of people were to start shopping online during office hours on Cyber Monday.
• 71% of those polled said they would visit online retailers on Black Friday, compared to 67% on Cyber Monday. On average, online shoppers intended to spend two and a half hours engaging with internet retailers on Black Friday and two and a quarter hours shopping online on Cyber Monday.
• While 18% of online shoppers planned to shop during their breaks and 16% said their employers trusted them to make up any lost time, 6% of people told Beaming they would need to shop in secret while at work.
• 5% of online shoppers said they planned to “pull a sickie” on Black Friday or Cyber Monday to provide more time for internet bargain hunting and pre-Christmas shopping.

Should we let employees shop online? 

‘Tis the season of goodwill, and though few employers are likely to encourage staff to trawl the online shops for bargains in favour of getting on with their work,  allowing online shopping activity during break times could be a good way to make sure productivity is maintained during working hours.

Managing people & networks on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and beyond.

Beaming CEO, Sonia Blizzard, comments: “Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now firm fixtures in the UK’s online shopping calendars. While good news for e-commerce retailers and customers, these events have the potential to harm productivity and expose businesses to greater cyber security risk. Companies need to think about how they manage this.”

“The main threat of these big retail events is cyber-crime. When people trawl the internet for bargains they become easy prey for the kind of retail click bait criminals use to infect corporate systems. Clicking on one erroneous link can expose a business, its entire network and everyone they trade with, to greater risk of data theft and computer viruses, the bills for which can be enormous.”

“Employers can use Black Friday and Cyber Monday as an opportunity to educate their people. They should have honest conversations about cyber security, encourage people to speak up if there is any possibility of a breach and create goodwill by allowing staff to shop online during their breaks but we would recommend that this is done away from their desks. Allowing staff to access a separate internet connection on their own devices is the best way to keep this kind of traffic off the main business network and minimise the risk of damage to systems.”