14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study revealed that while most organizations agree that social media represents a major risk on a company's security, only 29% actually take safety measures to contain the phenomenon.
The report, made by Ponemon Institute and commissioned by Websense is based on 4000 individuals from 12 countries around the world which provided a lot of useful information on how social networks affect businesses on the security level.
While most of the respondents agreed that these environments have a positive effect on their firms as they can maintain a healthy, open communication with consumers and partners, they also acknowledge there is dark side to the matter that is not yet taken seriously by those involved.
The figures show that 85% of those questioned believe that it's acceptable to socialize using these means with friends inside the company, while 55% consider that even acquaintances outside the organization don't pose any threat.
Only 6% consider that it should not be allowed for employees to post uncensored content or download videos during the workday.
The results also show that in most cases, social networking decreases productivity and increases the risk of malware infections, in US more than half of the respondents experiencing a larger number of virus and malware infections as a direct effect of these practices.
On the other hand, in countries like the UK, 80% of those interviewed consider Facebook and other such websites as being essential and very important in terms of meeting business objectives.
Other numbers show that in Singapore for instance, three quarters of the questioned firms had to increase the bandwidth of their internet connection to meet the requirements of employees using social media sites.
The paper also contains a number of recommendations that should help a company protect its network against hacker attacks:
- a risk assessment is necessary to understand what practices could compromise the organization; - the education of employees on the matter as they might become more aware of the damage they could cause; - a strict policy should be put in place to regulate all the tools and the manner in which they are used; - improvement of the ability to detect and prevent attacks.