ALMOST HALF OF CORPORATE INTERNET USAGE IS
UNPRODUCTIVE
23 March 2007
Latest ScanSafe stats show an alarming abuse of
employer Internet facilities
ScanSafe, a provider of Web Security-as-a-Service that
monitors clients' use of the Internet, issued compelling
data this week on corporate Web usage.
The company reports that of the Web traffic the company
scanned in February 2007, 49 percent was non-productive
including requests for gambling, music, porn and Webmail
sites. Overall, Web filtering blocks were up 8 percent
compared to January.
Specifically, the company reported that:
* 14 percent of blocks were for advertising and
promotion
* 12 percent of blocks were to online chat and Instant
Messenger (IM) sites
* 10 percent of blocks were for Webmail
* Music, gambling and pornographic sites each accounted
for 4 percent of blocks
* Blocks to gambling sites were up a record 22 percent
over January
"Beyond the negative impact on productivity,
uncontrolled use of the Web can have serious and costly
consequences for businesses of all sizes including
exposure to legal liability, disclosure of confidential
information, breaches of compliance requirements and
unnecessary bandwidth consumption," said Dan Nadir, vice
president, product strategy, ScanSafe.
Nadir added that events such as Valentine's Day and the
Super Bowl tend to drive up unproductive Web traffic in
the work place. For example, the week prior to the Super
Bowl, the company saw a 77 percent increase in
U.S.-based requests for gambling and sports-related
sites.
The company expects to see a jump in U.S.-based requests
for gambling and sports-related sites throughout March
during the annual NCAA Division 1 Basketball
Championship tournament as users go online to watch live
streaming game video, place a bet or just IM with
friends about the tournament as part of "March Madness."
Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based firm,
anticipates that March Madness will result in $3.8
billion in lost worker productivity this year alone.
In addition to the data on Web filtering, ScanSafe also
reported it blocked 24 new IM threats in February, 54
percent of which affected MSN Messenger compared to 21
percent that affected Yahoo! and 17 percent that
affected AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).
Over the past 12 months, MSN Messenger has consistently
ranked #1 as the most targeted IM platform. Fifty-three
percent of all the IM-based threats blocked by ScanSafe
in the past year have affected MSN, compared to 41
percent that affected AIM and 29 percent that affected
Yahoo!.
The company also reported a marginal decline in malware
in February. Web viruses remained virtually unchanged in
February after increasing 27 percent in January. Spyware
and adware blocks decreased 2 percent in February
compared to a 26 percent increase the previous month.
"Historically, we see a jump in Web malware in January
followed by a slight drop in February," Nadir said.
"Attackers know that malware may have a better chance of
being propagated following the New Year when many users
are returning from the holiday and haven't patched their
PCs. This seasonality usually corrects itself and we
tend to see a steady increase in malware, particularly
spyware, as the year progresses."
The ScanSafe Global Threat Report is based on real-time
analysis of more than 6 billion Web requests and more
than 12 million Web threats scanned by the company in
February and is the largest analysis of Web security
threats based on real-world traffic.
With offices in London and San Mateo, California,
ScanSafe is privately owned and financed by Benchmark
Capital and Scale Venture Partners. The company received
the Info Security Global Product Excellence Award for
Best Managed Security Service and was named one of Red
Herring's Top 100 Technology companies.
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