Stacy Innerst, Post-Gazette

God bless the Internet, savior to all those who struggle to survive a boring work day.

Apparently, that's most of us -- 58 percent to be exact, according to a recent study by Websense Inc., a San Diego/based Internet software company.

Most workers polled would rather give up their morning coffee than stop using the Web at work for personal reasons, the survey found.

Take a woman I'll call Ms. Cyber Love.

"I spent the entire day on the Internet. I didn't do any work besides answering the phone," the woman, a facilities manager at a Washington, D.C.-based political organization, said recently.

One of her favorite Web sites is www.interracialsingles.com, where she holds virtual court and sometimes entertains lascivious conversations with men who like colorful cyber-romance during the day.

If you're pretending to be chagrined or horrified ... stop. Now.

Chances are you do it, too.

Maybe you're not cavorting with the opposite sex while you're supposed to be preparing your latest Power Point presentation, but you've done something online today. Maybe you paid your bills, bought a gift on Amazon.com, checked sports scores or planned a family vacation. Those tiny indiscretions count just as they are -- things you aren't supposed to be doing on the Internet at the office.

But everyone does it -- at the risk and peril of their employers, said one Sewickley-based computer security expert.

Shopping on eBay, online gambling, watching videos and hanging out in weirdo user groups are causing security problems for organizations. Like the rest of us -- or at least those of us who spend a lot of our time on the Internet -- employers are constantly fighting the incessant impending threat of spyware, viruses and hackers.

Steve Smith has been in the computer security business for more than a decade, ever since a youth at his son's school was downloading nude pictures from the Internet and selling them on the bus.

Smith and a friend developed software to protect the school's systems from porn and then launched a company that they later sold.

Now he's on to another venture, Sewickley-based Congruity, which makes software that helps businesses protect themselves from the vulnerabilities created by Net-wandering employees.

Smith said he had all kinds of stories about the Internet gone wild at work.

Relax, the people who know about these things say it's not all your fault.

Smith claims that Internet usage is going up because software companies are creating more "eye candy" for their advertising-driven products.

Your eyeballs have been caught, reeled-in, then trapped by the marketplace.

Tell that to your boss when he figures out that you, like most Americans -- 51 percent -- have been spending up to five hours a day at work using the Web for your personal perusal.

Ironically, many people, such as the aforementioned Ms. Cyber Love, say that they are forced to cyber surf to take care of things that they have no time to accomplish in off hours -- because they spend so much time in the grind of work.

Indeed, she reconciles her days looking for lovers online with the fact that she works such long hours. Working until nearly 8 p.m. doesn't leave much time for taking care of personal business, she says.

As work days get longer and lives more harried, who has the time or energy to handle these priorities at night?

So after she's talked dirty with a sexy guy from Bosnia, she orders all of her drugstore supplies online, pays her bills ... organizes her life.

Although a woman is the focus of this article, work-based Internet play isn't a women-heavy phenomenon.

The study found that more men, 62 percent, than women, 54 percent, are on the Internet for personal use. The guys are checking out sports and financial sites, while the women are primarily shopping, followed by viewing sports sites and paying their bills.

If you are an employer reading this and you're shocked and horrified, there are options. Talk to your resident tech person.

In the meantime, crack the whip. Or get used to weddings being planned, sports tournament pools organized, romances borne and, possibly, a less productive office.

Or then again, maybe it is more productive office, filled with employees who, able to take care of some personal but necessary business, are happier and eager to do the work at hand.