E-mail -- Better Than a Cyberattack?

For years we've heard the arguments that e-mail, personal digital assistants and social networking sites sap worker productivity and can even get in the way of decision making. The latest, and rather compelling, argument comes from Air Force Col. Peter R. Marksteiner in an article in Armed Forces Journal.

Marksteiner, who's director of the Air Force Legal Operations Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, argues that "the careless use of technology" has led the Defense Department and the federal government as a whole, to a situation in which "commanders and decision-makers at all levels are rendered less aware and less capable of resolving complex issues and maintaining decision dominance across the range of military operations." That is the very definition, he argues, of information operations, the Defense term for any attack or diversion "that degrades or denies information or the way information is processed and acted upon."

Marksteiner cites numerous studies and statistics in his long article to support his argument, many of which are downright troubling. Two of the more surprising stats he cites:

1. Investigating Internet use at the IRS, the Treasury Department found that 51 percent of the time an employee was online was for personal use.

2. Websense, an Internet filtering and Web consultant company, reports that 60 percent of employees who access the Internet at work do so for personal reasons, such as "shopping, banking, checking stocks or watching sports events, playing online poker, booking travel, and accessing pornography sites."

Marksteiner's article most likely won't make it any easier for the Defense Information Systems Agency to lift its restrictions on allowing Defense employees and soldiers to watch videos on YouTube, update MySpace pages or ctach the latest NCAA basketball tournament games on their PCs.

Hat tip: Wired's Danger Room