DEP Computers Visited Banned Websites

HARTFORD (AP) — Nearly half the computers reviewed in an audit of the Department of Environmental Protection were used to visit unauthorized websites in 2004 and 2005, state auditors say in a recently released report.

The users of DEP computers routinely looked at the Internet sites of newspapers, L.L. Bean and other mail-order merchants, travel sites, automobile manufacturers, and dozens of others declared off-limits by state policy, the Connecticut Post reported Sunday. The policy requires all state computers to be used only for state business.

Prohibited sites were visited by 19 of the 42 DEP workers with Internet access, whom state auditors randomly selected among hundreds of employees.

One senior engineer in the agency’s waste management bureau visited several websites for brides from the former Soviet Union. Womenrussia.com was visited 2,062 times, Ukraineloves.com 761 times, and honestmarriageagencies.com 279 times via the employee’s computer during a time period that audit reports did not specify.

The auditors recommended that DEP officials enforce state policy on computer use.

The state does have software that prevents state computers from accessing millions of websites, including those with adult content and auctions. But the latest upgrade to the software was not installed in DEP computers until last year, according to the state Department of Information Technology.

DEP spokesman Dennis Schain said the 2004 and 2005 period examined in the state auditors’ report was at least a full year before the agency’s computers were incorporated into the overall state system, which includes better filtering and blocking software.

Schain said agency officials warned the engineer who visited the bride websites and other workers whom auditors say broke the rules. The engineer, who was not named, continues to work at DEP, Schain said.

“In the cases where auditors identified improper use, supervisors were informed and were asked to discuss the matter with employees and to make certain they were fully aware of the state policy,” he said.

State agencies have not disciplined many workers for violating the Internet policy. But last year, Veterans Affairs Commissioner Linda S. Schwartz was reprimanded, the agency’s financial manager was fired and a dozen people in the department were found to have misused their work computers.

Labor union leaders and some state officials believe banning any personal use of state computers is an unrealistic policy that needs to be reviewed.

The AFSCME Council 4 union, which represents 17,000 state workers, warns them to be careful when using computers and the Internet.

“It’s a very difficult and ambiguous issue to confront,” union spokesman Larry Dorman said. “In the end you have to have common sense on the part of the employer and employee.”