IT professionals are not aware of what constitutes Web 2.0 and are overconfident of the security measures they have, thus, putting companies at risk, a new survey revealed.
Websense said in a press statement Tuesday that the study found only 17 percent of respondents were able to identify all items indicated in the survey that can be considered Web 2.0. Such confusion over what constitutes Web 2.0 poses a threat to an organization's online security, said the security services provider.
As such, despite the increased use of Web 2.0 sites and applications, a dangerous security gap exists, said Websense.
Commissioned by Websense, the survey was conducted by research firm Dynamic Markets and polled 1,300 IT managers in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Of the 80 percent respondents in the survey who said they felt confident about their organization's Web security, 68 percent did not have real-time analysis of Web content and 59 percent could not prevent URL re-directs. Furthermore, 53 percent did not have tools to stop spyware, 52 percent had no security products able to detect embedded malicious code on trusted Web sites, and 45 percent reported not having data loss protection technology to prevent loss of confidential information.
Only 9 percent reported having security tools to cover all threats.
According to 47 percent of the respondents, their users had tried to bypass the organization's Web security policies. Websense said this highlighted that new Web security policies were needed to provide the flexibility for employees to access the Web, while at the same time, prevent inappropriate use or security threats.
However, despite the risks, Web 2.0 is here to stay as more businesses use such tools to increase collaboration and exchange information. This is supported by findings in the survey that indicated 62 percent of IT managers said they viewed Web 2.0 as an essential business tool.
As such, 95 percent of respondents currently allowed employee access to some Web 2.0 sites and applications--mostly Web mail, mashups and Wikis.
As employees clamor for more use of Web 2.0, IT departments will have to balance preventing security risks while allowing safe and flexible access, Websense said.
Based in Singapore, Konrad Foo is an intern with ZDNet Asia.
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