The Importance Of End-User Policies And Procedures Part V

You may believe that policies that require locking down end user machines are too restrictive. You may even believe companies should allow end users as much freedom to install applications or configure machines as they like.

If the users in your organization can be trusted to add or remove hardware or software, more power to you and to them. And if you don’t mind providing help desk support for the picture-maker of-the-month and gamers on the network, more power to you.

Be forewarned, though. The first time a user inadvertently launches a virus or brings down the network, you’ll wish you’d locked down your machines.

Naturally you don’t want to just randomly start placing restrictions on your network or pull a usage policy out of thin air and apply it to your users. You must start by educating users on the dangers they can face on a daily basis. Then you can tell them what you want to do about it.

Any policy you create should explain clearly what kind of user behavior is acceptable and what is not. That’s easy enough, if your rules are clear-cut. The real hurdle, as any IT manager knows, is convincing a group of people to cooperate despite the fact that you’re likely taking away some of their rights and privileges.