SurfControl, a UK-based Web and e-mail filtering company, says 89 out of 100 UK IT managers they asked old them that the widespread use of instant messaging and peer-to-peer applications now poses serious threats to security and productivity in the workplace.
SurfControl’s survey also revealed that, despite high levels of awareness amongst IT managers of these risks, almost half of respondents admitted that their organisation had no measures in place to prevent their use. SurfControl says the true number may even be higher than this as many IT Managers are “misled into thinking that their firewall is protection enough against these threats.”
When asked which application posed the greatest threat to their business, 55 per cent believed that peer-to-peer would cause the biggest headaches – as it is almost never used for business purposes and allows employees to file share with other users out of sight of the IT department. In addition, IT Managers questioned admitted that 69 per cent of their users are not aware of the hazards of using instant messaging and peer to peer applications at work.
“At the moment neither IM nor P2P applications are needed by the majority of users during their everyday working tasks,” said Steve Purdham, SurfControl CEO. “Not only do they create security and productivity issues, but their use can also have serious legal ramifications – especially in the case of P2P file sharing where copyright is constantly breached and inappropriate material is easily accessible. In time IM applications could be used as legitimate business tools, but that will be limited while there are no standards in place as all IM applications are based on different technologies at the moment. It’s not clear if the same will ever be true of P2P. In the meantime businesses need to take appropriate steps to protect themselves and educate their users.”
Needless to say, SurfControl has a solution to the problem. An addition to its product suite – SurfControl Instant Message Filter – is designed to shield firms against security breaches, productivity losses and the legal implications of inappropriate use of IM and P2P.