Companies are more concerned about their employees’ performance than IT security

PETALING JAYA, September 14, 2012 - Keeping employers off certain sites and blocking the launch of third-party applications are among the most popular ways of ensuring IT security, a survey has found. According to a study conducted by B2B International in July 2012, companies are most likely to restrict access to online games, with 71% of the IT professionals surveyed saying this was part of their strategy.

Slightly less popular methods include restricting or banning social networking sites – a measure mentioned by 68% of those surveyed. From this, it’s possible to conclude that IT specialists risk focusing more on employees’ performance, rather than infrastructure security.

The results also cover measures which are directly related to infrastructure security and data safety. For example, 50% of companies have restricted or prohibited the use of file exchange services, and 47% have enforced similar rules for connecting external devices to work computers.

More worryingly, though, 43% of IT specialists have already faced deliberate or accidental data leakage due to employee actions. This significant figure suggests there is insufficient control in terms of storing and communicating corporate information.

It’s important to remember that any bans or restrictions should be applied beyond workstations within the corporate network and cover other computers such as corporate laptops which can be connected to public Wi-Fi networks. Here, corporate security policies are ineffective and dedicated software is needed. Such solutions are available as part of Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows. Its Web Control module allows system administrators to block or restrict access to certain websites, social services and online games.

They can be blocked automatically, or according to manually specified criteria or blacklists. Web Control makes it possible to introduce separate security policies for different user groups as well as flexibly restrict access to certain resources during work and non-work time.

The full report on B2B International’s July 2012 survey results is available athttp://www.kaspersky.com/downloads/pdf/kaspersky_global_it-security-risks-survey_report_eng_final.pdf.