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How safe is your surfing? Few SMBs have social networking security policy

By | October 13, 2011, 5:52am PDT

Summary: Approximately 40 percent of small and midsize businesses have suffered a breach because of malware picked up by employees while visiting the Web, social networking sites.

Earlier this week, I wrote about technology that could be instrumental in protecting your company’s Web site. But are the employees at your small or midsize business likewise protected from content they might pick up from Web sites they visit on the job?

That is the subject of a newly released survey by security technology developer GFI Software. Its study, conducted among about 200 IT decision makers at organizations with between 5 and 249 employees, found that 40 percent of the respondents had suffered a breach related to malware that workers picked up while surfing the Web.

Perhaps even more concerning, given the amount of time that people are now spending on Facebook and other sites: the GFI Software study found that only 16 percent of SMBs actually have a full-fledged social networking use policy.

Those two findings are not mutually exclusive: they underscore the dangers of not having some sort of social networking policy or, in the absence of a policy, having some sort of Web content filtering mechanism in place.

Approximately 11.5 percent of the respondents indicated that they didn’t use Web monitoring or filtering software at all. Actually, that’s not a bad number, but the survey’s results show a disconnect between security realities — especially in this year’s hacker-prone environment — and the amount of thinking that small and midsize businesses have done about security policy.

You won’t be surprised to hear that the study’s release coincides with an update of the company’s WebMonitor offering.

Said Phil Bousfield, general manager of the GFI Software Infrastructure Unit:

“SMBs walk a fine line when it comes to balancing employee Internet access with the security risks it creates. The Internet is one of the most valuable tools SMBs have at their disposal, but without a strong security strategy and a thorough understand of how and where threats originate, it can pose significant risks to their networks.”The software includes a new Website Reputation Index and a GFI ThreatTrack URL blocking feature that will keep employees from getting to sites that could be risky. The company touts the fact that this new feature will enable companies to protect against malicious sites without blocking entire categories of Web sites. It gives SMBs some flexibility, because the realities of social media and social networking are that they make it easier for people to get their jobs done so you don’t want to block them outright. There is also a featuring for managing (and blocking) messaging clients during work hours.

The survey results and the features included in the new GFI Software service should help SMBs get a better picture of their own security posture. The fact remains: social marketing activities are going to be one of the most cost-effective ways for SMBs to get noticed, but they also introduced some vulnerabilities that cannot be ignored.

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Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I'm covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

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RE: How safe is your surfing? Few SMBs have social networking security policy
HongwenZhangWedge 31st Oct
Thanks for providing the warning Heather, as this is a very important topic for organizations of any size today. Social media allows hackers to take advantage of the trust between friends to spread malware attacks through seemingly safe content. With social media being used on company computers, corporate networks are at an increased risk for a breach. Having a social networking use policy is quite important, as is having the security infrastructure to prevent an attack. Our company, Wedge Networks continues to lead the efforts on ensuring network layer Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) to prevent the outflow of user data. This is accomplished through a Deep Content Inspection approach that prevents the good things from flowing out and the bad things from flowing in.
This is silly why don't you specify that it is Windows Malware you are talking about, it is not an internet problem or a Mac or Unix problem it is a windows problem and the number of Mac users that got mail ware at work and home surfer with out any protection is virtually zero. So rather than limit their employees from expanding their business using the internet freely they should limit them and slow them down decrease productivity so that IT can have a castle to support and "protect" their users using fear tactics!
But that is just my opinion. . .
Thanks Heather for a thoughtful post. It???s an interesting challenge. Doc fears that employers will be forced to monitor employee Internet use much more closely (bad thing) in order to assure a little better security (good thing). As a fierce privacy advocate, Doc is sad to think employers will have to track employees' behavior ??? within reason, Doc believes employees should be allowed to use the Net for personal uses, same as they might occasionally use the phone or take a personal call at work on their cell phones. But there are bad guys out there, and no employer should have to subject themselves to malware. Can???t we all just learn to get along?

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/doc
Thanks for providing the warning Heather, as this is a very important topic for organizations of any size today. Social media allows hackers to take advantage of the trust between friends to spread malware attacks through seemingly safe content. With social media being used on company computers, corporate networks are at an increased risk for a breach. Having a social networking use policy is quite important, as is having the security infrastructure to prevent an attack. Our company, Wedge Networks continues to lead the efforts on ensuring network layer Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) to prevent the outflow of user data. This is accomplished through a Deep Content Inspection approach that prevents the good things from flowing out and the bad things from flowing in.

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