Facebook - a Concern for Companies

A report by security company Sophos has found that big companies are preventing their employees from using Web 2.0 services. This move is targeted to maintain the productivity and to prevent the unauthorized transfer of professional information. The reason for restricting employees is the so called social networking phenomenon and sites like Facebook are the main concern for the companies.

The research shows that 43% employees have had Facebook access banned completely while 7% have reported that networking Websites were blocked only for those who had specific requirements. According to the analysis, which had taken the views of 600 employees, about 66% workers were of the view that their co-workers were leaking information on Facebook which might lead to various kinds of thefts and phishing attacks for the company.

Graham Cluley, Sophos' senior technology consultant, said that the employers have many reasons to be troubled by these social networking sites, the most important being the issue of productivity which is being hampered due to employees spending a lot of time surfing such sites, reported NEWS.com on August 22, 2007.

The poll result points out that companies have difference of opinion about such sites. Brett Myroff, a Sophos executive, said that some companies take these sites as a loophole that can be utilized by hackers for identity theft if the workers are not careful while others take it as an important networking tool for employees, or are too worried of workers' reaction if the Website is blocked suddenly, as reported by theage.com.au on August 23, 2007.

He further added that the companies have to take a clear stand on the issue whether or not they want to allow their employees to have access to these sites during office hours. He reminds that if the employees are allowed, they have to be trained specifically for not providing personal and corporate data on these sites unknowingly. He said that five minutes spent on understanding Facebook's privacy settings might be able to save a lot of data leak and other thefts.

Even Facebook has welcomed these suggestions saying it provides options to hide personal information and wants the users to be able to protect their online information.

Related article: Facebook Users Should be Careful of a Computer Virus

» SPAMfighter News - 9/6/2007