My bank requires part of it's compliance training program via the Internet. Thus, all tellers now have internet access. This has caused some problems with tellers surfing excessively, at the expense of customer service. Does anyone else have this problem and how have you handled it? If I disable internet on the line, then I'll have to schedule each teller to take the compliance training at a designated area. Any ideas?

For one thing, you should have an Internet Acceptable Use Policy that sets the requirements for use of this tool.

I wrote an article on this awhile back and put it on my personal web site so that it can be read and downloaded for use. All I ask is that you let me know you got it and what you think.

The policy itself is written so that you can easily identify and extract things you do not want. You may or may not want to include things like copyright laws, use of voicemail, etc. But they are there if you want them. They all pose a risk to your bank.

I never realized the risks until I researched that article. Digital footprints are left all over.

On a personal note I have a nephew (14 yrs old) who went to a web site of, shall we say, questionable content. It asked for a credit card number and he didn't have one. He indicated such and he was still sent to the section of the site he wanted. He didn't read the part about being disconnected and reconnected to their preferred carrier. This too could happen at your bank. The telephone bill that month was $2,400. Who would pay it at your bank?
http://www.vvm.com/~zavoina

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Andy Zavoina
Opinions stated are not necessarily that of my employer.

We "borrowed" Andy's policy almost verbatim. And we get a regular report of which sites are visited (and which user was logged on to our system as it was visited). It makes for some interesting reading.

[This message has been edited by John Burnett (edited 01-02-2001).]

Marie:

In addition to developing a policy, you might consider installing one of the free/cheap keystroke monitoring software tools that are readily available in shareware websites. These tools record every keystroke and -- as John Burnette indicates -- then use the report to track Internet usage. You can then review these reports with your offending employees.

Most of these software tools were developed by computer crooks -- and many crooks use them to record passwords and other critical information. I've even found janitors and other "contract" service employees using them during non-business hours to access the bank's computers . . .

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Dana Turner
Security Education Systems
danaturner@bankersonline.com
210-310-0212

Thanks for the information. Our bank does have an established Internet policy. Other than monitoring the Internet Activity usage (which I'm sure would help reduce "surfing), are other banks allowing tellers to have access to the Internet? Have you had to either restrict use or take it away completely? I really don't want to take Internet away...but as an alternative, I may have to.

Thanks.

None of our tellers have Net access. It wouldn't assist them in doing their primary function, and we base access on need. They may have internal "e-mail" capabilities, but not the Net, Web, etc.

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Andy Zavoina
Opinions stated are not necessarily that of my employer.

As an alternative, could you have specific pcs in each branch with internet access and that is where the tellers go for training? Perhaps in a conference room or training room, and a supervisor/manager has the password for that pc? The tellers can't surf while at their window and you still can deliver training via internet.

[This message has been edited by kblanchard (edited 01-05-2001).]

We have internet based training also. I am not very proficient with network technology, but using our intranet we solved this problem. We have several "compliance" log on ID's , which a teller would use during down time. When they log on to our intranet using one of these ID's, it only brings up the compliance training site via the web. From this site, they can't escape to another forum for surfing. They do still have to log off and re-log on with their user ID when customers are present, but the training remembers where they were.