Viruses and Malware Among Top Web 2.0 Concerns

A new research conducted by the Ponemon Institute and Check Point Software has revealed that malware, data loss and viruses are the top web 2.0 issues faced by people.

A survey of 2100 IT security administrators was conducted by the security firm in countries such as France, US, UK, Japan and Australia. The organization participated in the research range from small, medium to large organizations. The survey included enterprises from 12 different industries such as industrial, healthcare, financial, government, retail and education.

Ponemon Institute Chairman and Founder Dr. Larry Ponemon states that their research finds Web 2.0 application corporate users give secondary importance to the security of their systems. The increasing number of sophisticated security thought and the distribution of online and easily downloadable tools are aggravating the problems faced during the protection of sensitive information, as per the news published by Resellernews on August 9, 2010.

The research has found that because of these reasons, approximately 77% of businesses are planning to implement a solution which would address such vulnerabilities in the next five years.

In addition, the study shows that around 82% of IT security administrators acknowledged that the security profile of their respective organizations might face potential challenges and loopholes because of various Internet applications, social networking and widgets.

The respondents also mentioned that the employees rarely acknowledged the corporate security threats their organizations might be facing. However, they carried on managing their daily business communications. Some of the communications include web browsing, opening links, downloading Internet applications, utilizing peer-to-peer or 'P2P' file sharing sites, video streaming and involving in social networking websites or applications as well.

In order to tackle the problem, the security experts have explained that it is inevitable to educate employees so that they understand their role in the maintenance of firm security.

Juliette Sultan, Head of Global Marketing at Check Point Software Technologies, has commented that the IT security administrators are serious about the negative impact of Web 2.0 applications on the firm, but they also require tools to understand which employees are using for business purposes, as per the news published by Check Point on August 2, 2010.

Related article: Viruses Pose Biggest Threat to Asian Companies

» SPAMfighter News - 8/16/2010