Acceptable Use

Whos fooling who?

Facebook, YouTube, MSN, Bebo, and MySPace are great places to meet and network with people sharing similar interests. Social network sites are an inherent part of todays internet and used by more than a billion people worldwide, allowing people to share ideas and interact with friends and strangers. However all the things that make social networks so attractive to users pose significant risks to business.

1. Loss of productivity
When unchecked, the time spent on social networking sites can affect productivity, as your employees spend more time playing during business hours.

2. Bandwidth Consumption
Last year, when the U.S. government mandated open access to social networks, traffic on the network increased by 25%. Video alone can overwhelm many networks. A single video stream usually consumes between 500k to 1.2 Mbps (and that's not even HD), and when you have tens or hundreds of people accessing videos it's easy to see how overall performance can degrade.

3. Data Loss
It's not uncommon for people to inadvertently post confidential information that provides "insider knowledge." These actions, though unintentional, can potentially violate industry specific regulations, impact your reputation, or put you at a competitive disadvantage.
social networking sites and their users' ideal malware targets. According to Sophos, 40% of users were infected by malware from social networking sites. Typical attacks try to trick users into giving up information that can be exploited for financial gain. Some examples of malware in social media are:

4. Malware
Social media users are spending more than 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook alone, making social networking sites and their users' ideal malware targets. According to Sophos, 40% of users were infected by malware from social networking sites. Typical attacks try to trick users into giving up information that can be exploited for financial gain. Some examples of malware in social media are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Managing the risk
Stratiis uses a number of tools to minimise these risks including content filtering, web defence and policy management such as acceptable use policies enabling you to utilise the best of what the internet can offer without compromising the business that you operate.