Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/45522
YOU CAN'T IGNORE THE RESULTS Ponemon Institute recently conducted a survey (sponsored by Websense, Inc.) that included responses from over 4,000 people from 12 countries. The key findings of the report as stated by the PR Newswire article, "Global Survey: Malware Attacks Up Because of Social Media; Organizations Lagging on Proper Protection," are as follows: • The rapid spread of social media may have caught many organizations off guard. 63 percent agree that employee use of social media put their organization's security at risk. In contrast, only 29 percent say that they have the necessary security controls — such as secure Web gateways — in place to mitigate or reduce the risk posed by social media. • Malware attacks have increased because of social media usage, and it's growing. 52 percent of organizations experienced an increase in malware attacks as a direct result of employee use of social media, and 27 percent say that these attacks recently increased more than 51 percent. The United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany and Singapore report the highest increases. • Only one of the three security technologies that respondents favor can block advanced malware and data-theft attacks. Respondents identified antivirus/antimalware (76 percent), endpoint security (74 percent) and secure Web gateways (73 percent) as important protections. But only secure Web gateways with real-time content analysis and data- loss prevention can block advanced malware and data-theft attacks, many of which seek entry through social media. • Even if an organization has a policy that addresses the acceptable use of social media in the workplace, 65 percent say that it is not enforced, or they are unsure whether it is enforced. The top three reasons for not enforcing these policies are: lack of governance and oversight (44 percent); other security issues are a priority (43 percent); and insufficient resources to monitor policy compliance (41 percent). • Organizations believe that IT bandwidth has been diminished as a result of social media use. The top two negative consequences of an increase in social media use were diminished productivity (89 percent) and reduced IT bandwidth (77 percent), which increases costs. Just under half (47 percent) believe exposure to inappropriate content is also a negative consequence. • 60 percent of employees use social media for at least 30 minutes per day for personal reasons. The United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Mexico have the highest use of social media for nonbusiness reasons. Organizations in Germany have the highest use of social media for business purposes. Regional variations are often compounded by higher local bandwidth costs, which shift the priority of this concern throughout the globe. • Countries most likely to see social media as important to meeting business objectives are the United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong, India and Mexico. The countries with www.iltanet.org Risky Business 51