Unsanctioned Computer Support Costs Companies $88K per Year

Security professionals are devoting more than one hour during the work week to assist co-workers who are asking for help in fixing their employee-owned personal computers, according to a survey released Wednesday by FireMon.

The survey of more than 350 IT security pros found 83% help fellow employees in other departments fix their personally owned computers. And of this group, 80% spent an hour or more per week doing this.

This translates into assistance that is costing employers roughly 52 hours a year or more – slightly more than a week's worth of vacation. It also comes at a time when companies are scrambling to fill a shortage of IT security workers.

According to the study, the average salary for an IT security professional is $55 an hour. So when you multiply that with the 52 hours that an IT security worker spends helping co-workers fix their personal laptops and computers, it comes out to roughly $3,000 a year in lost security work, according to the survey. And when you consider the average IT security staff is roughly 31 workers, then that collective figure jumps to a loss of $88,660.

Read more about the study here.