Department of Interior Excessive Indulgences

Department of Interior Excessive Indulgences

The department, which oversees national parks, land management and more, 


encourages most of its 80,000 employees to use the Internet for 


work-related duties. A one-week study by the department's Inspector 


General found, however, that a lot of abuse is going on. Among the 


study's findings:


* Computer-use logs revealed more than 4,732 entries relating to 


  sexually explicit Web sites and gambling sites. Some computers 


  accessed sex sites for 30 to 60 minutes during the test period.


* This activity accounted for more than 24 hours of Internet use during 


  the sample period, which did not include a review of e-mail or other 


  means of transferring prohibited material.


* More than 1 million log entries were discovered indicating 7,763 


  Department computer users spent 2,004-plus hours accessing game and 


  auction sites. Extrapolated over the year, that could account for 


  100,000 lost work hours. Put another way, this would equal 50 


  full-time employees doing nothing but surfing online game and auction 


  sites.


* 177 disciplinary actions have been imposed on department computer 


  users for inappropriate Internet use since 1999.


Despite these ongoing issues, the department is sensitive to Internet 


misuse, having had several employees convicted in the past for various 


offenses, including possession of child pornography. The department has 


appropriate-use policies in place and conducts regular training, 


although it does not have a systemwide monitor or blocking system yet. 


Some bureaus within the department do use such tools, and there are 


plans to provide them departmentwide.


The report concludes: "Efforts to prevent, deter and detect Internet 


access to inappropriate Web sites are inconsistent and must be 


improved."


The department has not been without other embarrassing Internet 


situations. Earlier this year the Office of Management and Budget gave 


it a grade of F for its cybersecurity system.


Two years ago, the department even had the plug pulled on its Web 


site over security concerns.

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