ScanSafe Data Confirms that Roaming Workers Are Up to No Good on the Web
Research shows those working from outside the office request porn websites 2.5 times more often than in-office counterparts and request illegal file sharing sites 8.5 times more often
London and San Mateo, Calif. — April 17, 2008 — In data released today, ScanSafe has confirmed the long held belief that employees are engaging in risky Web surfing when working outside the office. The company found that roaming laptop users are much more likely to try to access illegal file sharing sites, porn sites and other questionable content putting employers at risk of legal liability and exposure to malware.
An analysis of 8 billion Web requests processed by the company in March confirms that roaming workers visit these websites significantly more when they are outside the office.
Specifically, roaming workers visit the following sites more than their colleagues in the office:
- Illegal file sharing sites 8.5 times more
- Porn sites 2.5 times more
- Extreme websites (sites with extremely graphic content) 5.2 times more, and
- Illegal activities sites (for example, sites with information on building explosives) 3.9 times more
“It’s no surprise that Web browsing habits change when employees are outside of the physical confines of their office and away from the watchful eye of supervisors and colleagues,” says Dan Nadir, vice president of product strategy at ScanSafe. “What is surprising is that there is such a huge increase in requests for what most organizations would deem highly offensive sites and in some cases illegal content—including the download of copyrighted material. If your employees are using a corporate-issued laptop to download illegal music files from home, your organization could be liable.”
Interestingly, there is one category of sites that remote employees are less likely to visit when they are out of the office—banking sites. According to the data, roaming employees are 66 percent less likely to visit an online banking site.
According to ScanSafe many companies are not securing Web use for their remote workers. Extending security solutions for roaming laptop users is complex, hard to maintain, expensive, and falls short of offering full ‘roaming’ protection.
In January, ScanSafe launched Anywhere+, the world’s first ever software-as-a-service (SaaS) Web security providing real-time protection from malware and enforcement of acceptable Internet usage policies for all users surfing the Web regardless of their location.
“Roaming Workers – The Weakest Link in Corporate Web Security,” a white paper outlining the productivity and security issues raised by roaming workers is also available at http://www.scansafe.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/7301/Roaming_whitepaper.pdf.
For more information on Anywhere+, visit http://www.scansafe.com/anywhereplus3/index.
