IT and Communications Systems Policy

Our IT and communications systems are intended to promote effective communication and working practices. This policy outlines the standards you must observe when using these systems, when we will monitor their use, and the action we will take if you breach these standards.

Breach of this policy may be dealt with under our Disciplinary Procedure and, in serious cases, may be treated as gross misconduct leading to summary dismissal.

You are responsible for the security of the equipment allocated to or used by you, and you must not allow it to be used by anyone other than in accordance with this policy. You should use passwords on all IT equipment, particularly items that you take out of the workplace. You should keep your passwords confidential and change them regularly.

You must only log on to our systems using your own username and password. You must not use another person's username and password or allow anyone else to log on using your username and password.

If you are away from your station you should log out or lock your computer. You must log out and shut down your computer at the end of each working day.

You should not delete, destroy or modify existing systems, programs, information or data (except as authorised in the proper performance of your duties).

You must not download or install software from external sources without authorisation from the IT Director. Downloading unauthorised software may interfere with our systems and may introduce viruses or other malware.

You must not attach any device or equipment including mobile phones, tablet computers or USB storage devices to our systems without authorisation from the Company Directors.

We monitor all emails passing through our system for viruses. You should exercise particular caution when opening unsolicited emails from unknown sources. If an email looks suspicious do not reply to it, open any attachments or click any links in it.

Inform the IT department immediately if you suspect your computer may have a virus.

Adopt a professional tone and observe appropriate etiquette when communicating with third parties by email. You should also include our standard e-mail signature and disclaimer.

Remember that e-mails can be used in legal proceedings and that even deleted emails may remain on the system and be capable of being retrieved.

You must not send abusive, obscene, discriminatory, racist, harassing, derogatory, defamatory, pornographic or otherwise inappropriate emails.

You should not:

Do not use your own personal email account to send or receive email for the purposes of our business. Only use the e-mail account we have provided for you.

We do not permit access to web-based personal e-mail such as Gmail or Hotmail on our computer systems at any time due to additional security risks.

The use of USB memory sticks/keys is only permitted with prior permission; these items must only have SY Plus Limited work files on, and not personal files, which could risk any data owned by SY Plus Communications. You are not allowed to store the same files on a personal computer.

Data stored on such devices, and any data files stored on laptops, should be backed up on SY Plus Communications backup drive on a regular basis.

The above two points also apply to any mobile device.

All files should be virus checked daily.

You are not to cancel any antivirus software updates. It is your responsibility to ensure that provided antivirus software is kept up to date.

Internet access is provided primarily for business purposes.

You should not access any web page or download any image or other file from the internet which could be regarded as illegal, offensive, in bad taste or immoral. Even web content that is legal in the UK may be in sufficient bad taste to fall within this prohibition. As a general rule, if any person (whether intended to view the page or not) might be offended by the contents of a page, or if the fact that our software has accessed the page or file might be a source of embarrassment if made public, then viewing it will be a breach of this policy.

We may block or restrict access to some websites at our discretion.

Employees should remember that any messages or information sent on company-provided facilities to one or more individuals via an electronic network—for example, Internet mailing lists, bulletin boards, and online services—are statements identifiable and attributable to SY Plus Limited.

SY Plus Limited recognizes that participation in some forums might be important to the performance of an employee's job. For instance, an employee might find the answer to a technical problem by consulting members of a news group devoted to the technical area.

We permit the incidental use of our systems to send personal email, browse the internet and make personal telephone calls subject to certain conditions. Personal use is a privilege and not a right. It must not be overused or abused. We may withdraw permission for it at any time or restrict access at our discretion.

Personal use must meet the following conditions:

Our systems enable us to monitor telephone, e-mail, voicemail, internet and other communications. For business reasons, and in order to carry out legal obligations in our role as an employer, your use of our systems including the telephone and computer systems (including any personal use) may be continually monitored by automated software or otherwise.

We reserve the right to retrieve the contents of e-mail messages or check internet usage (including pages visited and searches made) as reasonably necessary in the interests of the business, including for the following purposes (this list is not exhaustive):

Misuse or excessive personal use of our telephone or e-mail system or inappropriate internet use will be dealt with under our Disciplinary Procedure. Misuse of the internet can in some cases be a criminal offence.

Creating, viewing, accessing, transmitting or downloading any of the following material will usually amount to gross misconduct (this list is not exhaustive):