IM worms and viruses are still gaining popularity. P2P programs regularly publish confidential files to the Internet. Illegal music downloads are, well, illegal, and they use copious amounts of network bandwidth. I love to play online poker, but maybe it's not the best use of my company's paid time.

How many of your employees during the past 12 months have been buying and installing GotoMyPC without your knowledge? Take a look -- you may find out that the employee has been accessing his or her computer desktop from home for weeks or months. How convenient. No security issues there, right?

If we could trust employees to only install nonmalicious and productive applications, it would be good for the company. But most users will download junk and malware. In general, end-users can't be trusted to make appropriate risk decisions. Let them trash their home machines instead.

It's like a company car: You probably can't repaint it, jack it up, or add a nitro tank to the fuel system. That doesn't stop you from driving it anywhere you want to go though. You might drive faster with a nitro tank installed, but you'll blow out the engine a lot more quickly and end up on the side of the road or needing a tow. If I prevent you from installing the nitro tank, you'll travel a lot further without a breakdown and will get more accomplished over the long run. Many companies don't mind you using the company car for personal business as long as you don't wreck it. Why can't it be the same with company-owned computers?

What those who say my primary defense stifles innovation and creativity don't understand is that not allowing unauthorized software to be installed leads to more, faster innovation.