Most US firms ignore spyware risk

Three quarters of US firms do not consider spyware to be a problem, and most do not see unauthorised employee use of peer-to-peer file sharing services or instant messaging (IM) as major problems.

A survey conducted for Secure Computing found that only 25 per cent of US businesses recognised spyware as a major problem, despite widespread warnings about software which can covertly gather user information.

The poll of 111 US enterprise IT managers indicated that 90 per cent believe file-sharing software is not a major problem, and a surprising 40 per cent saw it as 'no problem'.

And 90 per cent of respondents saw IM as no problem or a minor problem, with 80 per cent feeling that personal email accounts were no problem or a minor problem.

Most companies polled claimed to be addressing IM, file sharing and spyware security threats primarily with workplace policies, and some with software tools and procedures.

Over 80 per cent of employers have policies addressing spyware and email, and nearly 70 per cent have policies covering IM and file-sharing software.

See also:

Spyware support costs run into millions

Technical support lines buckling as users seek help  28 Jun 2004

Spammers use spyware to improve hit rates

Latest technique deploys malware to gather information from PCs  23 Jun 2004

One in three PCs hosts spyware or Trojans

Survey of 650,000 consumer PCs found 18 million instances of spyware  16 Jun 2004

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!