Social Networking at Work Puts the Company Network at Risk

According to Trend Micro, company that specializes in providing Internet security solutions, social networking sites are a security threat not only to the user, but also to the company's network. This is because a lager and larger number of people access such sites from their workplace, using the PC and Internet connection provided by their employer. Social networking sites are usually exploited by e-criminals who want to propagate their malicious software.

Raimund Genes, CTO (Chief Technology Officer) with Trend Micro explains: "The popularity behind social networking sites makes them vulnerable targets of cybercriminals. Instead of threats being distributed as email attachments, we are seeing more of them being embedded into Web 2.0 links, many of them found on social networking sites. And, as these sites become more innovative and interactive, we expect to see more security breaches and cybercrime."

Trend Micro conducted a study on 1600 corporate users from four different countries (UK, US, Germany and Japan) and found that the number of people who visit social networking sites from work has increased by 4% compared to last year. Security related issues in regard to social networking sites have been on the increase, from 1 million in December 2007 to 1.5 million in January 2008.

According to Trend Micro, in the western world, represented in this case by the US, UK and Germany, social networking sites are more frequently visited by employees of large corporations. In the UK for example the percentage has gone up from 11% to 27%, while in Germany from 9% to 13%. In the eastern world, represented by Japan, it seems that this phenomenon is more widely spread amongst employees of smaller corporations. Japanese employees are more prone to spending more than one hour a day surfing web 2.0.

Out of all 1,600 respondents, 45% of them answered positively when asked if they had sent private or confidential information via e-mail. Earlier this month Trend Micro was issuing another warning, regarding the threat of data leaks.