Facebook Banned at Work. Finally!

Nowadays, Facebook and other social networking services are quite a phenomenon that changed the life of numerous Internet users. A recent study conducted by security company Sophos revealed that no less than 50 percent of the employees are banned from Facebook while 66 percent of the respondents are worried that some of their mates might publish a little bit too many details about them on the social websites. You're probably thinking that Facebook was banned in all these working places because it takes time and some of the employees might be tempted to access the social page instead of focusing on their job.

Well, you're wrong. According to the report, most of the companies are afraid that Facebook's registered members might write private information in their profile that concern the firm, their job or other secret areas that should be hidden from the public eye. Also, some of them try to avoid hack attacks because some details might enhance the hackers' attacks and may allow them to infiltrate into the companies' computers.

"Companies are split on the question of Facebook. Some believe it to be a procrastinator's paradise which can lead to identity theft if users are careless. Others either view it as a valuable networking tool for workers or are too nervous of employees backlash if the site is suddenly blocked," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

Facebook tends to become a real threat for many companies and, after other Internet services were banned in the large firms because they decreased productivity, the social network is now banned too in many companies.

"Companies need to make their own mind up as to whether they want to allow their users to access websites like Facebook and MySpace during office hours. If workers are allowed to be given access to these sites then it's imperative that they are taught best practices to ensure that they are not putting their personal and corporate data at risk. Five minutes spent learning the ins-and-outs of Facebook's privacy settings, for instance, could save a lot of heartache later," the Sophos representative added.

You're probably asking yourself what's with that "finally" placed in the title. Well, it's simple. I'm clearly not a fan of Facebook, Hi5 or other social network websites available on the Internet.