Some eyeopening stats in the new Proofpoint US corporate study. The study details some of the main concerns faced by companies whose employees post online. If you don't want to wade through the bullet points the most startling stat is over 9% of companies polled have sacked an employee for posting sensitive or inappropriate material on blogs and messageboards. Here's more from the press release.
In the past 12 months, 14.0% of surveyed companies have disciplined an employee for violating social networking policies and nearly 5% terminated an employee for such a violation. In the past 12 months, 11.0% of surveyed companies have disciplined an employee for violating media sharing policies and 6.8% terminated an employee for such a violation. In the past 12 months, 21.4% of companies surveyed had investigated the exposure of sensitive information via blog or message board postings, while 19.2% disciplined and 9.1% terminated employees for such infractions. In the past 12 months, 12.4% of publicly traded companies surveyed had investigated the exposure of material information via blog or message board postings. 48.7% of companies are very concerned or concerned about Web-based email as a conduit for exposure of confidential or proprietary information. Respondents are also very concerned about FTP, instant messaging, peer-to-peer networks, media sharing sites, blogs and message boards as potential conduits for data loss. Among the largest companies (20,000 and more employees), peer-to-peer networks were the no. 1 source of concern for information leakage via non-email electronic communications channels, eclipsing Web-based email, instant messaging, media sharing sites and blogs.More here.
