Panda Security Publishes Findings from First Annual Social Media Risk Index for SMBs

ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Panda Security, the Cloud Security Company, today announced the results of its first annual Social Media Risk Index for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The study, which surveyed 315 US SMBs with up to 1,000 employees throughout the month of July, revealed that 33 percent of these companies had experienced a malware or virus infection from social networks, with 23 percent citing employee privacy violations resulting in the loss of sensitive data.  In addition, thirty-five percent of survey respondents that were infected by malware from social networking sites suffered a financial loss, with more than a third of those companies reporting losses in excess of $5,000.

"Social media is now ubiquitous among SMBs because of its many obvious business benefits, yet these tools don't come without serious risks," said Sean-Paul Correll, threat researcher at Panda Security. "In Panda's first annual Social Media Risk Index, we set out to uncover the top SMB concerns about social media and draw a correlation to actual incidence of malware infection, privacy violations and hard financial losses. While a relatively high number of SMBs have been infected by malware from social sites, we were pleased to see that the majority of companies already have formal governance and education programs in place. These types of policies combined with up to date network security solutions are required to minimize risk and ultimately prevent loss."

Social Media Benefits Outweigh Concerns

According to the survey, SMB's top concerns with social media include privacy and data loss (74 percent), malware infection (69 percent), employee productivity loss (60 percent), reputation damage (50 percent), and network performance/utilization problems (29 percent). However, these concerns are not deterring SMBs from reaping the business benefits of social media as 78 percent of respondents reported that they use these tools to support research and competitive intelligence, improve customer service, drive public relations and marketing initiatives and directly generate revenue. Facebook is by far the most popular social media tool among SMBs: Sixty-nine percent of respondents reported that they have active accounts with this site, followed by Twitter (44 percent), YouTube (32 percent) and LinkedIn (23 percent).

Facebook Emerges as Top Source for Malware Infections

Facebook was cited as the top culprit for companies that experienced malware infection (71.6 percent) and privacy violations (73.2 percent). YouTube took the second spot for malware infection (41.2 percent), while Twitter contributed to a significant amount of privacy violations (51 percent). For companies suffering financial losses from employee privacy violations, Facebook was again cited as the most common social media site where these losses occurred (62 percent), followed by Twitter (38 percent), YouTube (24 percent) and LinkedIn (11 percent).

Social Media Governance and Education Are Prevalent Among SMBs

To minimize the risks associated with social media, 57 percent of SMBs currently have a social media governance policy in place, with 81 percent of these companies employing personnel to actively enforce those policies. In addition, 64 percent of companies reported having formal training programs in place to educate employees on the risks and benefits of social media. The majority of respondents (62 percent) do not allow the personal use of social media at work. The most common disallowed social media activities include: Playing games (32 percent); publishing inappropriate content on social media sites (31 percent); and installing unapproved applications (25 percent). In addition, 25 percent of companies said that they actively block popular social media sites for employees, mainly via a gateway appliance (65 percent) and/or hosted Web security service (45 percent).

Survey respondents included individuals involved in setting and/or enforcing policies related to network activities at 315 SMBs within the United States. A slideshow on the study's results is available at: http://bit.ly/cD9wX4.

About Panda Security

Founded in 1990, Panda Security is the world's leading provider of cloud-based security solutions with products available in more than 23 languages and millions of users located in 195 countries around the world. Panda Security was the first IT security company to harness the power of cloud computing with its Collective Intelligence technology. This innovative security model can automatically analyze and classify thousands of new malware samples per day, guaranteeing corporate customers and home users the most effective protection against Internet threats with minimum impact on PC performance. Panda Security has 56 offices throughout the globe with US headquarters in Florida and European headquarters in Spain.

For more information, visit http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/ .

Survey Timeframe: The Social Media Risk Index for SMBs survey was conducted by Panda Security between July and August 2010 among non-users of Panda solutions.

Participants: The survey consisted of companies with between 15 and 1,000 employees.

Methodology: The survey was carried out online through prior invitation via e-mail.

Sample error: Sampling error calculation is +/- 5.7  for a confidence level of 95%.

SOURCE Panda Security