Although the majority of Australian IT security managers consider social networking websites a security risk, around half still allow employees to access to these sites, according to new figures from a Galaxy Research report.
The MessageLabs-commissioned report found that 73% of respondents considered social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, as posing "moderate to high risk" to IT. But despite this, 46% did not block access to the sites.
According to Andrew Antal, MessageLabs country manager for the ANZ region, allowing access to these sites is cause for concern.
"These sites are among the most visited on the internet and the bad guys are looking for ways to take advantage of this wave of traffic," Antal said.
He said that while people are now more aware of spam and phishing attacks, these popular social networking sites provide another avenue for viruses, worms, trojans and spyware to slip through.
They also pose a threat to productivity, Antal said, and open the doors for both identity theft and corporate data leakage.
"Employers may be identified and there is always the possibility of derogatory comments or disclosure of commercially sensitive information being made by an employee, which then becomes a permanent feature online."