Why can't I use my corporate computer for EPSO's online selection tests?
Many of us use corporate computers for tasks unrelated to work, such as consulting our personal e-mail accounts, booking airplane tickets, making personal appointments, browsing the internet, etc. In a similar vein, many candidates could expect to be able to use their corporate computers to sit EPSO’s online selection tests, known as remotely proctored tests [1].
These tests require a third party – an external contractor – to take control of your computer while you take the test. Among other things, this prevents candidates from browsing the internet or running applications outside the remit of the tests.
In the digital environment of EPSO’s institutional clients, there are multiple layers of IT security applied to corporate computers, including laptops. These include, mainly: network firewalls & other types of access restrictions.
In order to enable online selection tests to run on a corporate computer – including those made available to staff of EPSO’s institutional clients (e.g. the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and others) – multiple security controls would have to be disabled, relaxed or changed by an authorised administrator.
This could include changing firewall rules or local permissions on your corporate computer and on your Windows registry settings.
All these changes could present known and unknown risks for corporate stakeholders, some of them potentially serious.
Understandably, EPSO’s institutional clients, and other corporate stakeholders, must ensure that the risks to their digital environment are reduced to a minimum.
They must ensure the security, confidentiality, availability and integrity of their IT systems and the data they carry, as illustrated in the pyramid below.
Any decision allowing candidates to take EPSO’s online tests using their corporate computers would have to be made by EPSO’s institutional clients, or by other relevant corporate stakeholders. EPSO is not in a position to make this decision on their behalf.
We understand that this may create an inconvenience for some candidates who would like to use their corporate computers for taking EPSO’s online selection tests.
Most candidates have been able to find adequate solutions (for example, using their own device or borrowing one from another person).
To learn more about EPSO and our competitions, please visit our website, in particular our page on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Outreach & External Relations, 5 September 2023
[1] A remotely proctored test is an online test administered and monitored by a human or an automatic system located remotely. In the context of EPSO’s testing, proctoring refers to the supervision and monitoring of candidates to ensure that they comply with the test security requirements and do not use any deceitful means to pass the test.