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While Pepkor's Acceptable Use Policy does allow “reasonable" use of your work email account for personal purposes, it is a really bad idea to do so. Here are the main reasons why:
1. Privacy
Pepkor wholeheartedly respects the privacy of employees and has strict processes in place to protect employee privacy. However, as stated in the Acceptable Use Policy, any employee data stored in systems and services paid for
by the company can be accessed should the need arise and the correct process followed. If this concerns you, please rather make use of a personal email account for your personal communications.
2. What if you leave?
We regularly deal with people who are leaving the company (or have left already) who realise that they have signed up to personal services with their company email account and can no longer access these services without access to their email. Our Information Security policies are very clear that when you leave, your access will be removed. We cannot allow you to access your company data (or forward mail to your new address) once you have left the business. This is a significant security risk, and cannot be entertained.
Regaining access to these services without access to your email account can be very difficult or impossible. Pepkor IT are unable to help you if you find yourself locked out of critical services because you used your work account to sign up for them.
So what should I do if I have signed up for services with my work email account?
If you have already used your work account to sign up for personal services, you should be able to change your registered email address to another one while you still have access to your account. We suggest using an Outlook.com or Gmail address, but any reputable service with a good name around their security and privacy practises is fine. Sometimes the service can't be changed easily and you may need to contact their support service to assist you. Please ensure you do this before you lose access to your work account though, or they will usually not be able to help.
Critical Security Note:
Most services allow you sign up with an email address. They also use this address should you forget your password or have some other issue accessing your account. This is why protecting your personal email account is so critical. If someone else has access to your personal email, they have access to all other accounts too because they could just click the “I forgot my password” button and an email will arrive allowing them to change it. You must guard your personal email account very closely. It holds the keys to your kingdom!
Ensure you do the following when setting up your personal email account:
Use a reputable email service. They probably have better security than a very small service run by some guy who claims his security is “top notch!”
Use a long and strong password.
Never re-use this password on any other service.
Ensure your have enabled Multi-Factor Authentication (use an app that shows numbers, not SMS)
We hope this short explanation of why you should not use your work email account to sign up for personal services makes sense to you. Many people don't think about the implications of what happens when they leave and how they will continue to access their personal services. We encourage you to change any personal services you may have used your work address for (including Banking, Social Media, Online Shopping etc.) but please remember to ensure that you secure any personal email accounts properly.
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