Unmonitored Surfing is not Safe!!!

Websense reveals findings of `State of Security’ survey

India Infoline News Service / Mumbai Feb 12, 2008 15:19

The survey findings highlight that a majority of employees today spend a significant time on the Internet when at work. However, the majority of these employees are not aware of and hence not worried about the security threats arising from the Internet

Websense, Inc. a global leader in Web security and content protection announced the findings of the SOS ‘State of Security’ survey conducted in India. The survey commissioned by Websense and undertaken by The Nielsen Company, India, assesses the impact of the Internet at work and gauges awareness of Internet security risks among employees.

The study of employees working in 450 organisations across Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad, surveyed employees with Internet access at work in large businesses and small and medium enterprises.

“The survey findings highlight that a majority of employees today spend a significant time on the Internet when at work. However, the majority of these employees are not aware of and hence not worried about the security threats arising from the Internet,” said Surendra Singh, Regional Director, SAARC, Websense Inc.

Key findings of 2007 State of Security India, employees survey:

1.Unsafe IT behaviour leads to unintentional loss of confidential information:

63% of respondents from Delhi use their personal email ID for work purposes against the average of 36%. Delhi and Bangalore also have the highest proportion of respondents (32%) who send work documents to personal e-mail accounts versus the average of 23%. Given the nature of data that BFSI deals with, 42% of employees in this vertical use personal e-mail for work-related activities. In Bangalore, an average of 17% of respondents admitted to clicking on links in e-mail sent from unknown sources and 22% on pop-up ads highlighting a significant section of Internet users who are ignorant of online threats.

2.Leaking information a job threat:

57% employees feel leaking sensitive company information or infecting their company with malicious spyware or viruses (38%) puts them at greater risk of losing their job than not adhering to their organisation’s Internet policy (20%). Almost one-third employees (31%) believe they will lose their job on viewing adult content at the workplace and 22% said they would lose their job if found downloading unauthorised software.

3.Employees surfing behaviour:

64% of respondents admitted they are bit fearful of the security dangers of the Web and hence surf only safe Web sites. However, 39% of all respondents agreed that they download movies, music, software etc. while at work. Significantly, 30% said they surf aimlessly with no particular destination in mind and about the same proportion of respondents said they surf without bothering about online security.

4.Internet — A critical work enabler:

All employees surveyed spend an average of 4.25 hrs per day on the Internet. Employees spend 45% of their time (3.5 hours) per day surfing work-related Web sites, the highest being in Chennai, 50% (4.25 hours) and Hyderabad, 65% (5.5 hours). The average time spent on non work-related Web sites is 5 hours per week. Enterprises incur a productivity loss of approximately Rs. 160,000 per employee per annum due to non work-related surfing.

5.Organisation’s Internet security:

Almost 70% of employees in India appeared confident of their IT department’s capabilities to protect them against every Internet security threat.

6.Web is biggest source of infection:

52% of all employees surveyed believe that the Web is a key source of infection followed by e-mail (39%) and instant messaging (4%). In similar findings, IT managers also believe the Web (48%) to be a key source of network infection followed by e-mail (46%).

7.Data leakage:

35% of employees feel most worried about losing both personal as well as work-related information. However, 28% of employees do not feel worried at all about any personal or private information being stolen or accessed from their work PC.

Source :

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