A survey of 1,300 IT professionals worldwide conducted by Websense reveals a majority of IT managers are still unsure what constitutes Web 2.0, and are ill-equipped to combat security concerns associated with social media.
About 95 percent of businesses allow access to social media in the workplace, and 86 percent of IT managers surveyed reported being pressured to expand social media accessibility—most often from marketing, sales, and C-level executives—despite security concerns.
Websense recently reported that 70 of the top 100 most popular website, many of which are social media sites, had hosted malicious content at some point. In fact, there are 150,000 spoofs of Facebook alone. Though 80 percent of the IT managers surveyed were confident in their company’s Web security, only nine percent said they have the necessary tools to protect against social media threats.
That puts an interesting squeeze on the IT department. With the majority of IT managers (62%) agreeing with executives and other employees that wikis, blogs, mashups, etc., are necessary resources for business, and almost half (47%) saying employees try to get around the company’s security policies, it makes securing the network that much harder.
Also making it difficult is the lack of clarity around the term “Web 2.0.” Just 17 percent correctly identified all items in the survey that can be considered Web 2.0. Only half correctly identified wikis, YouTube, hosted software/cloud computing sites like Google Docs as Web 2.0.
When asked about specific security measures, large percentages of the IT managers surveyed had not implemented them. They are as follows:
- 68% do not have real-time analysis of Web content
- 59% cannot prevent URL re-directs
- 53% do not have security solutions that stop spyware from sending information to bots
- 52% do not have solutions to detect embedded malicious code on trusted Web sites
- 45% do not have data loss prevention technology
The scope of Websense’s survey is impressive. The company interviewed 1,300 IT professionals, 68 percent at manager level and 32 percent at CIO/director level, in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Itraly, the UK and US working for organizations with 250 or more PC users.
For IT managers worried they are ill-equipped to handle social media-originating malware, Websense has set up a Web 2.0 at Work site where managers can register for a free analysis report.
