A Longitudinal Study to Determine Non-technical Deterrence Effects of Severity and Communication of Internet Use Policy for Reducing Employee Internet Abuse

This is the second part of a longitudinal study that examines how employee Internet abuse may be reduced by non-technical deterrence methods, specifically via IT acceptable use policies (AUP). Both studies used actual usage and audit logs (not self-reporting measures) to monitor the web activity of employees. In the earlier study, a mild AUP reminder to company employees resulted in a 12 percent decrease in non-work Internet usage. The current study utilized a more severe AUP communication and resulted in a 33 percent decrease in non-work Internet usage. For both studies, the AUP reminder resulted in an immediate decrease in non-work Internet usage. Results indicate that while non-work traffic under both treatments returned over time, the longevity effect of the severe AUP message was greater than the mild AUP message and non-work traffic did not return to its previous pre-treatment level by the end of the study.