Employers are gradually putting more restrictions on what websites their employees can view and are increasingly choosing to block access to popular social networking sites, according to a new report from security firm ScanSafe."When Web filtering first became an option for companies we generally saw them block access to typical categories such as pornography, illegal activities and hate and discrimination," said Spencer Parker, director of product management at ScanSafe.
"In recent months, employers are obviously wising up to the dangers and negative impact on productivity linked to certain sites and more and more of our customers have chosen to block social networking, online banking and Webmail."
The report found a 20 percent increase in the number of companies blocking social networking sites in the last six months. Currently, 76 percent of companies are blocking social networks and it is now a more popular category to block than online shopping (52%), weapons (75%), alcohol (64%), sports (51%) and Webmail (58%).
ScanSafe specifically found an increase in the number of customers choosing to block the below categories in the last 6 months.
28% increase in travel
27% increase in restaurants and bars
26% increase in sports
26% increase in online shopping
19% increase in Job Searches
16% increase in Webmail
"Social networking sites can expose businesses to malware and if not used for business purposes can be a drain on productivity and bandwidth," says Parker.
"Given the option, companies are increasingly taking a sterner approach to the sites that their employees are allowed to access. I imagine before long, social networking will be up there with pornography in terms of categories blocked."
netizens left a footprint.